Can't load a custom template through getChildHtml

Question

I'm using Magento 1.8.1 with lots of changes (difficult to update) and I would like to introduce the 1.9 rwd top menu for mobiles to my website because it's really interesting. The way I want to do it is to add on my header.phtml

<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('rwdtopMenu'); ?>
<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('rwdtopSearch'); ?>
<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('rwdtopAccount'); ?>
<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('rwdtopCart'); ?>

and hide it via css with display:none when window width is lesser than a specific value.

A part from this, I've also added to my local.xml

<default>
    <reference name="root">
        <block type="core/template" name="rwdtopMenu" as="rwdtopMenu" template="rwdmenu/rwdtopmenu.phtml"/>
    </reference>
    <reference name="root">
        <block type="core/template" name="rwdtopSearch" as="rwdtopSearch" template="rwdmenu/rwdtopsearch.phtml"/>
    </reference>
    <reference name="root">
        <block type="core/template" name="rwdtopAccount" as="rwdtopAccount" template="rwdmenu/rwdtopaccount.phtml"/>
    </reference>
    <reference name="root">
        <block type="core/template" name="rwdtopCart" as="rwdtopCart" template="rwdmenu/rwdtopcart.phtml"/>
    </reference>
</default>

And in the location default/mytheme/template/rwdmenu I've created the file rwdtopmenu.phtml with some testing text on it.

<p>Some testing text</p>

But it displays nothing and I don't know why it could be. Any idea?

Answer 1

You reference block name is wrong.It should be header (<reference name="header">) instead of root ( <reference name="root"> ).

getChildHtml() loads the HTML for the child block with the name which is passed to the method.

<default>
    <reference name="header">
        <block type="core/template" name="rwdtopMenu" as="rwdtopMenu" template="rwdmenu/rwdtopmenu.phtml"/>
    </reference>
    <reference name="header">
        <block type="core/template" name="rwdtopSearch" as="rwdtopSearch" template="rwdmenu/rwdtopsearch.phtml"/>
    </reference>
    <reference name="header">
        <block type="core/template" name="rwdtopAccount" as="rwdtopAccount" template="rwdmenu/rwdtopaccount.phtml"/>
    </reference>
    <reference name="header">
        <block type="core/template" name="rwdtopCart" as="rwdtopCart" template="rwdmenu/rwdtopcart.phtml"/>
    </reference>
</default>

Get More details getChildHtml().Checkout below link:

Understanding getChildHtml in Magento