Magento – Handling AJAX requests to display template partials

ajaxoverridestemplate

Pretty new to magento and I'm setting up a custom module to override the core newsletter. All I really want to do is add ajax submit to the form, which is straightforward so far, and also allow the form to be both displayed in a lightbox and on the page, depending on the context of the request. i.e within my custom module controller, would I use something like the below when the request is via AJAX, or is there a more recommended way to do this kind of thing? Thanks for any help

$html = Mage::getSingleton('core/layout')->createBlock('core/template')
            ->setTemplate('my_module/form.phtml')->toHtml();
$this->getResponse()->setBody($html);

EDIT: update after advice from beeplogic. I now get a blank page with the following code. Is there anything obvious I'm doing wrong here?

What I have is a MyCompany_Newsletter_SubscriberController which has a newAction(), overriding core Newsletter controller newAction. My controller action is called fine. I'm trying to target the default newsletter/subscriber/new In my module config.xml, I have:

<frontend>
    <routers>
        <newsletter>
            <args>
                <modules>
                    <MyCompany_Newsletter before="Mage_Newsletter">MyCompany_Newsletter</MyCompany_Newsletter>
                </modules>
            </args>
        </newsletter>
    </routers>
    <layout>
        <updates>
            <newsletter>
                <file>newsletter.xml</file>
            </newsletter>
        </updates>
    </layout>
</frontend>

Then in default/default/layout/newsletter.xml, I have:

<layout>
    <newsletter_subscriber>
        <block type="core/text_list" name="content" output="toHtml" as="content"/>
    </newsletter_subscriber>
    <newsletter_subscriber_new> <!--NOTE: this will be the generated action layout handle -->
        <reference name="content">
            <block type="core/template" template="newsletter/subscribe.phtml" />
        </reference>
    </newsletter_subscriber_new>
</layout>

Best Answer

You can still use Magento's XML layout configuration to send snippets of HTML. In your controller you will need to specify the handle's to render:

public function formAction()
{
    $this->loadLayout('newsletter_ajax_form');
    $this->renderLayout();
}

Define the layout update for your module:

<frontend>
    <layout>
        <updates>
            <newsletter_ajax>
                <file>mycompany/newsletter.xml</file>
            </newsletter_ajax>
        </updates>
    </layout>
</frontend>

In the layout file: app/design/frontend/package/theme/layout/mycompany/newsletter.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<layout>
    <newsletter_ajax>
        <block type="core/text_list" name="content" output="toHtml" as="content"/>
    </newsletter_ajax>
    <newsletter_ajax_form> <!--NOTE: this will be the generated action layout handle -->
        <reference name="content">
            <block type="core/template" template="my_module/form.phtml" />
        </reference>
    </newsletter_ajax_form>
</layout>

Related Solutions

Ajax Call Not Working – Troubleshooting Guide

Some troubleshooting tips:

Do you have a module registered in app/etc/modules?

If not, it should be as such:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <modules>
        <ThomasRyan_Checkoutajax>
             <active>true</active>
             <codePool>local</codePool>
        </ThomasRyan_Checkoutajax>
    </modules>
</config>

This module naming looks incorrect - it is expected to be separated with an underscore indicating namespace -- so, not this:

<module>Checkoutajax</module>

All modules are named as Company_Module, etc. Checkoutajax_AjaxController is then not a valid classname. Check your general PHP error log (or Apache logs) and you should see something to the effect of class not exists.

Change/update this to ThomasRyan_Checkoutajax or similar. All instances of Checkoutajax will need to be updated in the module xml definition.

The frontName also has issues, namely, it should be lowercase:

<frontName>Checkoutajax</frontName>

I'm not sure if Magento forces the lowercase on the routename.

The updated code, then:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
  <modules>
    <ThomasRyan_Checkoutajax>
      <version>0.1.0</version>
    </ThomasRyan_Checkoutajax>
  </modules>
  <frontend>
    <routers>
      <Checkoutajax>
        <use>standard</use>
        <args>
          <module>ThomasRyan_Checkoutajax</module>
          <frontName>checkoutajax</frontName>
        </args>
      </Checkoutajax>
    </routers>
    <layout>
     <updates>
       <checkoutajax>
         <file>checkoutajax.xml</file>
       </checkoutajax>
     </updates>
   </layout>
 </frontend>
</config>

And the controller:

<?php

class ThomasRyan_Checkoutajax_AjaxController extends Mage_Core_Controller_Front_Action {

    public function indexAction() {
        $this->loadLayout();
        $this->renderLayout();
    }
}

Edit:

This is just a quick update to explain how routes/controllers/actions work in Magento. Let's say that this is your URL:

www.yourstore.com/checkoutajax/ajax/index

This represents three different entities:

checkoutajax is the route name, also called frontName in the module definition XML
ajax here represents the controller name. This controller file should be named AjaxController.php and located in the /controllers directory of your module.
index represents the indexAction method.

So, to visualize:

www.yourstore.com/checkoutajax/ajax/index
---------route--------^
---------controller-------------^
---------action-----------------------^

Magento – AJAX Request JSON Response Always NULL

Try to edit your layout.xml for the ajax page:

<your_ajax_action>
        <reference name="root">
            <block type="yourajax/block" name="root" output="toHtml" />
        </reference>
</your_ajax_action>

This way, you will force the skipping of the headers, footers and other pages you don't need.

Alternatively you can try to simply echo your response and then exit() after. It is not the Magento way, but it usually works.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ajax Call Not Working – Troubleshooting Guide

Magento – AJAX Request JSON Response Always NULL

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