Online Tips for Web Developer/Designer

You may design some nice templates and layouts for your Magento shopping cart, but you cannot choose these layouts in CMS.

You can add the following XML codes in “global” section in either one of config.xml in any module, but I suggest you to create a new custom module to change it.

For example, if you’ve added a new layout named “Two-Column Right Column Full Layout Pages” in “page.xml”:

<layout>
      ...
      <page_two_columns_right_full translate="label">
            <label>Two-Column Right Column Full Layout Pages</label>
            <reference name="root">
                  <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/2columns-right-full.phtml</template></action>
                  <!-- Mark root page block that template is applied -->
                  <action method="setIsHandle"><applied>1</applied></action>
            </reference>
      </page_two_columns_right_full>
      ...
</layout>

Then in the config.xml in a new custom module or a existing module:

<global>
      ...
      <page>
            <layouts>
                  <two_columns_right_full module="page" translate="label">
                        <label>Two-Column Right Column Full Layout Pages</label>
                        <template>page/2columns-right-full.phtml</template>
                        <layout_handle>page_two_columns_right_full</layout_handle>
                  </two_columns_right_full>
            </layouts>
      </page>
      ...
</global>

Then in your backend CMS page, you should be able to choose this new layout.

Happy Magento’ing ~

When you’re implementing custom module, normally you will have to re-run setup routines. Some people will create newer version of the setup file, but it will make you confuse after 100 modification. To do it, simply remove references to your modules in “core_resource” table and then, in backend, go to ‘System’ -> ‘Configuration’ -> ‘Advanced’ in Advanced Section, click ‘Save Config’. Magento will run all your setup scripts again.

Happy Magento’ing ~