Utilizing blocks, layouts and templates On Magento Theme

Utilizing blocks, layouts and templates On Magento Theme As a Magento user, you might be well familiar with its flexibility and the ease of re-using the designs via the layouts defined in XML. If you've been facing issues with effective management of your Magento site's theme then this is a custom-made post for you. What you'll learn in this post? This tutorial allows you to dig deep into effective utilization of blocks, layouts and templates for managing the Magento theme in a convenient way. Understanding the Magento MVC system As compared to other MVC systems. Magento's Action Controller doesn't set the properties on view object and also doesn't pass a data object to the view, with just a few exceptions. Instead, Magento's View component references the system models for fetching information that's required for display purpose. Moreover, Magento's View has been separated into specific Blocks and Templates where blocks represent PHP objects and Templates represent raw PHP files with a mix of PHP and HTML. Let's get to know about utilization of Magento layouts Displayed below is an example of layout XML file called register.xml available for the Mage_Register module. Here, do note that the root element of any layout XML file islayout. layout version=/reference/default/layout As is visible from the above code, even though the root block has been declared in a different layout XML file, the newly created block will be added as a child block. While Magento initially creates the page/html Block that's called root, when it encounters a reference with the same name, it will assign the new block a.different.block.name as the child of the parent/rock block. That's it for now! Summing Up Now that covers the use of layouts, blocks and template during Magento theme management venture. Hope the configurations explained above would have helped you gather a detailed understanding of Magento MVC architecture. Content Writer Written by Isabella Morris Isabella Morris is currently employed with a renowned Magento development company and is also engaged in writing informative articles on best tools and tricks for Magento development. Her write-ups have proved beneficial for a wider group of Magento developers across the globe. Write For Us