Magento – Can you load a widget instance from a template

blockstemplatewidgets

I'd like to create 'widgets' in certain areas on my site, that can have certain parameters configurable by a non-technical Magento store admin. Widgets, by all descriptions sound like a nice way of doing this. All the adminhtml elements are in place to allow them to fill in the parameters without too much hassle.

What I can't work out though, is how to load and render a specific widget instance at a particular point in a template (as created via CMS > Widget > Add New Widget Instance and stored in widget_instance). I used the layout update feature to insert it into a block, which works reasonably well, but it's not quite flexible enough for what I wish to achieve.

Is it possible in a template file to load and render a widget instance?

Best Answer

Yes, you can do something like this:

$widget = Mage::getModel('widget/widget_instance')->load($widgetId);
$widgetBlock = $this
                   ->getLayout()
                   ->createBlock($widget->getType(),
                                 $widget->getTitle(),
                                 $widget->getWidgetParameters());
echo $widgetBlock->toHtml();

Related Solutions

Magento – Widget Instance Block Bug

This is a known bug.

In the file

/app/design/adminhtml/default/default/template/widget/instance/edit/layout.phtml

=> Replace around line 291

if (layoutHandleField = container.down('input.layout_handle_pattern')) {

With

if (layoutHandleField = $('layout_handle')) {

Magento – Copy a Widget Instance Programmatically, Preserving Layout Updates

/**
 * Copy widget instance
 *
 * @param $id
 * @return int id of the duplicate
 */
public function copyWidgetInstance($id)
{
    $orig = Mage::getModel('widget/widget_instance')->load($id);

    $data = $orig->getData();
    unset($data['instance_id']);
    $data['store_ids'] = $this->getDestination()->getId();
    $data['title'] = $this->getPrefix() . $data['title'] . date('H-i-s');

    /**
     * rebuild page group, to pass the isset($pageGroup[$pageGroup['page_group']])
     * @see Mage_Widget_Model_Widget_Instance::_beforeSave
     */

    $new_page_groups = array();
    foreach($data['page_groups'] as $group) {
        $page_group_name = $group['page_group']; // i.e. 'anchor_categories', 'simple_products'
        $new_group = array(
            'page_group' => $page_group_name,
             $page_group_name => array(
                 'page_id' => $group['page_id'],
                 'layout_handle' => $group['layout_handle'],
                 'entities' => $group['entities'],
                 'for' => $group['page_for'],
                 'block' => $group['block_reference'],
                 'template' => $group['page_template'],
             )
        );
        $new_page_groups[] = $new_group;
    }

    $data['page_groups'] = $new_page_groups;


    // copy
    $duplicate = Mage::getModel('widget/widget_instance');
    $duplicate->setData($data);
    $duplicate->save();

    return $duplicate->getId();
}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Magento – Widget Instance Block Bug

Magento – Copy a Widget Instance Programmatically, Preserving Layout Updates

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