Magento – Magento 2 “Layout Update XML” in Admin not working

magento-2.1.3magento2

I need to update sorting on just one category in our Magento CE 2.1.3 site. I tried placing the following code in the Layout Update XML field on the category in the admin, but it doesn't seem to do anything. If I put this same thing in an XML file in my theme it works like a charm, although it changes sorting throughout the whole site.

    <referenceContainer name="content">
        <referenceBlock name="product_list_toolbar">
            <action method="setDefaultDirection">
                <argument name="dir" xsi:type="string">asc</argument>
            </action>
        </referenceBlock>
    </referenceContainer>

As an alternative, I know in Magento 1 you can put some category specific layout updates by category ID using the <CATEGORY_123>, so does Magento 2 have something similar?

Update #1

After testing the code above on a clean install I confirmed that it does indeed work. I tracked it down to the fact that our theme is extending the catalog_category_view.xml file…

app/code/design/frontend/<vendor_name>/<theme_name>/Magento_Catalog/layout/catalog_category_view.xml

<page xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" layout="1column" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:View/Layout/etc/page_configuration.xsd">
    <body>
        <referenceContainer name="content">
            <referenceBlock name="product_list_toolbar">
                <action method="setDefaultDirection">
                    <argument name="dir" xsi:type="string">desc</argument>
                </action>
            </referenceBlock>
        </referenceContainer>
    </body>
</page>

If I remove the <action method="setDefaultDirection"> section, the "Layout Update XML" code I'm using in the admin seems to work great (only switching asc to desc, of course). Is this expected behavior? Does the extended theme file trump the Layout Update XML settings from the admin?

Update #2

Regarding my question for an alternative to the Magento 1 category id specific handle <CATEGORY_123>, thanks to this link I found that you can do this by using an ID specific file. Instead of the global catalog_category_view.xml you can create a file called catalog_category_view_id_123.xml to update that specific category ID.

My question still stands, though, as to why the admin "Layout Update XML" field is ignored if you have a theme specific sorting set in an XML file. It seems broken to me, but maybe it's expected behavior?

Best Answer

The code is working.

I tried the code and it works fine on my magento 2.1.3 CE.

Make sure your Design tab looks like this:

What you can try:

Revert to developer mode.
Clear magento cache.
Clear browser cache.

Related Solutions

Magento2 Category Field Custom Layout Update – How to Add Handle and Declaration

I'm trying to solve a similar issue, so I'm reading through the code pretty extensively to get to the root of this. I'll start at the end and work backward:

The call to addUpdate() you reference actually does end up calling addUpdate() on the \Magento\Framework\View\Model\Layout\Merge class. Hold onto your seat: it's a bumpy road. The $page variable is an instance of \Magento\Framework\View\Result, and it inherits the definition of addUpdate() from its parent class Layout (in the same namespace). That class in turn calls addUpdate() on a ProcessorInterface, whose default implementation is none other than: Magento\Framework\View\Model\Layout\Merge.

So then to your question about it seeming to pass the entire XML string: you are correct, and the behavior is correct. The Merge class should theoretically be taking care of parsing the <update> inside _fetchRecursiveUpdates() and then loading the layout XML from the referenced handle.

The catch is that _fetchRecursiveUpdates() is never called on XML chunks that are added via addUpdate(). They are assumed to be ready-to-go (non-recursive) layout instructions. Layout XML from external addUpdate() calls are included directly via a call to $this->asString() at the very end of Merge::load(). They never pass through the inner _merge() function which is what indirectly calls _fetchRecursiveUpdates().

A simplistic solution would be to create a new class that extends the built-in Merge class and set it as the preferred implementation of ProcessorInterface. You would then change the addUpdate() method to perform the same logic as _fetchRecursiveUpdates() before saving its argument to the internal array, something like the following:

public function addUpdate($update)
{
    $updateXml = $this->_loadXmlString($update);
    if (strtolower($updateXml->getName()) == 'update' && isset($updateXml['handle'])) {
        $this->_merge((string)$updateXml['handle']);
    } else {
        $this->updates[] = $update;
    }
    return $this;
}

Magento – Add class to body in CMS page (with layout update xml from admin panel)

Add these lines to layout in Design > Layout Update XML of cms page:

<body>
    <attribute name="class" value="body-class-aaa" />
</body>

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Magento2 Category Field Custom Layout Update – How to Add Handle and Declaration

Magento – Add class to body in CMS page (with layout update xml from admin panel)

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