Add custom block in Magento

Question

In Magento 1.9 I want to add a custom block to the homepage, but nothing happens. I have these files:

app/design/frontend/[mytheme]/default/layout/local.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<layout>
    <default>
        <reference name="root">
            <block type="core/text_list" name="customblock" as="customblock" translate="label">
                <label>Custom Block</label>
            </block>
        </reference>
        <reference name="customblockreference">
            <block type="core/template" name="customblock" template="customblock.phtml" />
        </reference>
    </default>
</layout>

In homepage.phtml

 <?php echo $this->getChildHtml('customblock') ?>

in app/design/frontend/[mytheme]/default/template/customblock.phtml

<h1>test</h1>

Where am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

the problem is that you added reference with name "customblock", but then you try to append your custom block to "customblockreference" reference,

try to edit your reference code onto:

<block type="core/text_list" name="customblockreference" translate="label">
    <label>Custom Block</label>
</block>

it should work :)

BR,

Dmitry

Answer 2

You need to work at layout xml file:

As per as magento home page layout handler is cms_index_index

and you have called the custom block under default handler that means this block is called at all pages.

Also customblockreference should be homepage.phtml reference name:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<layout>
    <cms_index_index>
        <reference name="homepagephtmlRefeenceName">
            <block type="core/template" name="customblock" template="customblock.phtml" />
        </reference>
    </cms_index_index>
</layout>