Magento 1.9 – Layout Handle Explanation for Catalog/Category Page

categorylayoutmagento-1.9update-handle

I would like to have a specific and precise explanation about the layout handle of catalog/category page.

From my knowledge i know that there are three different layout handles: catalog_category_view, catalog_category_default, catalog_category_layered

If we take a look at Mage_Catalog_Model_Category::getLayoutUpdateHandle() we will see: 

public function getLayoutUpdateHandle()
{
    $layout = 'catalog_category_';
    if ($this->getIsAnchor()) {
        $layout .= 'layered';
    }
    else {
        $layout .= 'default';
    }
    return $layout;
}

So catalog_category_layered is loaded when is_anchor is set to yes, otherwise the catalog_category_default is the one who will be loaded.

And what about catalog_category_view ?

In my case, in my catalog/product page i have catalog_category_view as layout handle with a layered navigation and if I set some category to is_anchor to yes, Im still always have the same layout catalog_category_view ?

Best Answer

you should have multiple handles for the category page (certainly more than 5). If you want to know which handles is used for a specific page, you can for example add the following code in a template of the page :

<?php
Zend_Debug::dump($this->getLayout()->getUpdate()->getHandles());
?>

(for example in the app/design/frontend/<your-package>/<your-theme>/template/catalog/category/view.phtml template)

The catalog_category_view should be always present in a category page because, for each action of a controller, Magento will create an handle with the name routerName_controllerName_actionName ( the action called when you are on a category page is the viewAction() of the categoryController.php of the module Mage_Catalog that have for router name catalog).

If a category is set with is_anchor to yes, it should add another handle catalog_category_layered as you mentionned.

Hope it will help.

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