Magento – Custom layout handle based on phtml file

Why changing the root template doesn't work

Both

Mage_Cms_IndexController::indexAction()

and

Mage_Cms_IndexController::viewAction()

which are responsible for displaying the default homepage and a CMS page respectively call a helper:

Mage::helper('cms/page')->renderPage($this, $pageId)

If you jump into the helper (located at app/code/core/Mage/Cms/Helper/Page.php) and follow renderPage() to the protected method _renderPage() you'll see that Magento is checking two times for a root template (Magento CE 1.7.0.2):

if ($page->getRootTemplate()) {
    $handle = ($page->getCustomRootTemplate()
                && $page->getCustomRootTemplate() != 'empty'
                && $inRange) ? $page->getCustomRootTemplate() : $page->getRootTemplate();
    $action->getLayout()->helper('page/layout')->applyHandle($handle);     
}

and

if ($page->getRootTemplate()) {
    $action->getLayout()->helper('page/layout')
        ->applyTemplate($page->getRootTemplate());
}

Both calls happen after layout handles like "cms_page" and the like are processed, so you are out of luck here.

What you can do to change the root template

There is an event cms_page_render which you can use for adding your own XML layout handle on CMS pages. Create your own extension (I'll spare some details here) and configure the event observer in your config.xml:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <modules>
        <Emzee_Cms>
            <version>0.0.1</version>
        </Emzee_Cms>
    </modules>

    <global>
        <events>
            <cms_page_render>
                <observers>
                    <emzee_cms_page_render>
                        <class>emzee_cms/observer</class>
                        <method>cms_page_render</method>
                    </emzee_cms_page_render>
                </observers>
            </cms_page_render>
        </events>
        <models>
            <emzee_cms>
                <class>Emzee_Cms_Model</class>
            </emzee_cms>
        </models>
    </global>
</config>

Add your event observer:

<?php

class Emzee_Cms_Model_Observer
{
    public function cms_page_render(Varien_Event_Observer $observer)
    {
        $action = $observer->getEvent()->getControllerAction();

        $actionName = strtolower($action->getFullActionName());
        $action->getLayout()->getUpdate()
            ->addHandle($actionName . '_after');
        return $this;
    }
}

Finally, add your new layout XML handle (e.g. in your local.xml):

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<layout version="0.1.0">
    <cms_index_index_after>
        <reference name="root">
            <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/1column.phtml</template></action>
        </reference>
    </cms_index_index_after>
</layout>

You can use this method as well to add a cms_page_view_after handle or create page specific handles as cms_page_render passes the $page object to your observer.

Why you can't add a block to the 'reference left'

Are you sure that the template you're using has a left column? This question may sound silly but the default "2 columns with right bar" layout for example only offers a 'content' and a 'right' area. I can add blocks to the right column using cms_page without problems so this could be the problem.

In general, you can only easily add blocks to references and echo them if

• the chosen root template uses the block you're referencing (see app/design/frontend/base/default/template/page/*.phtml) and
• the block you're referencing either is of type core/text_list, calls $this->getChildhtml() without arguments or does something else to echo all child blocks.

Without further details, I can't tell you why your blocks are not echo'd in the left or right column.

You can't do that. Specifically, you can't use the <update/> tag in a CMS page's Layout Update XML field.

Magento processes the <update/> nodes when it is initially loading the layout update files, and layout updates from the core_layout_update table. This is done with the fetchRecursiveUpdates function.

#File: app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Layout/Update.php

public function fetchPackageLayoutUpdates($handle)
{
    //...
        $this->fetchRecursiveUpdates($updateXml);
    //...

    return true;
}

public function fetchDbLayoutUpdates($handle)
{
    //...
    $this->fetchRecursiveUpdates($updateXml);        
    //...        
}

//...
public function fetchRecursiveUpdates($updateXml)
{
    foreach ($updateXml->children() as $child) {
        if (strtolower($child->getName())=='update' && isset($child['handle'])) {
            $this->merge((string)$child['handle']);
            // Adding merged layout handle to the list of applied hanles
            $this->addHandle((string)$child['handle']);
        }
    }
    return $this;
}

A CMS page, however, is rendered later on via a helper method. The rendering of a CMS page includes this code

#File: app/code/core/Mage/Cms/Helper/Page.php

$action->loadLayoutUpdates();
$layoutUpdate = ($page->getCustomLayoutUpdateXml() && $inRange)
    ? $page->getCustomLayoutUpdateXml() : $page->getLayoutUpdateXml();
$action->getLayout()->getUpdate()->addUpdate($layoutUpdate);
$action->generateLayoutXml()->generateLayoutBlocks();    

The loadLayoutUpdates call is the standard loading of the layout, including the fetchRecursiveUpdates mentioned above.

Then, Magento looks for a custom layout XML update set on the CMS page object

$layoutUpdate = ($page->getCustomLayoutUpdateXml() && $inRange)
    ? $page->getCustomLayoutUpdateXml() : $page->getLayoutUpdateXml();

and adds it directly to the list of updates to apply

$action->getLayout()->getUpdate()->addUpdate($layoutUpdate);

This means the scanning for the update tag is never done.

If I was trying to implement something like this, I'd add a new block in the CMS page's layout update XML, and then add the shared layout items programmatically in the blocks _prepareLayout method. (not sure off the top of my head if that would work w/r/t to timing, but that'd be where I'd start)