Magento

Hi all -
I see that you can pass a category_id to a list view using this in the cms:

inside of List.php, the only code I can see that would retrieve this variable (category_id) is this:

However, I cannot seem to replicate this:

I get the output “neg” every time.

So I figured out that if I use a function other than __constructor() in my Leftbar.php, I can pass parameters via this method:

However, I can’t seem to pass a parameter via the Layout Update XML in the CMS using:

In case anyone else comes across this thread, I find that you have to use the setData method when using the layout updates section, eg:

Then you can access it in the template like so:

i trtied to post a variable i need in 2 or three subcategories and tried it like this in layout update xml:

how can i get this variable in my category page.
this htings i have tested but no one works.

thanks for your help.

As far as I know the setData method adds the data into the block not the model. Block data is accessible using $this in the phtml file (because the phtml file is using the block class ‘Mage_Catalog_Category’).

Try:

or possibly:

Just so you know I passed a variable from the cms pages to the template by going like

{{block type="catalog/product_list" manufacturer_id=14 template="catalog/product/brand_spotlight.phtml"}}

and then in the template I put

$this->getData(’manufacturer_id’)

Thanks for your help above.

Doing it as a “category_id” attribute in the block only works in the “{{block}}” construct, where the email template filtering processes the attributes of the {{block ...}} So you can do this from email templates and on Cms pages (which use email templates too), but you can’t do anything analogous with straight “<block>” elements in layouts.  For layouts, you have to use an action:

such as was mentioned in a previous post. 

However, I should add I haven’t had a lot of success getting blocks from the Mage Catalog module to work independently of their usual context.  You can define attributes using actions, but blocks defined in the Catalog module seem to depend on a lot of context that is set by the controllers of the Catalog module, and it is difficult to get them to work in other contexts just by setting some attributes, like category_id.  For one thing, a lot of these blocks also set things with Mage::register. 

So this is a reasonable method to pass parameters to simple blocks and custom blocks where you know exactly what has to be set, but it is a bit unpredictable with Mage Catalog blocks.

smily - 26 October 2009 07:17 PM

In case anyone else comes across this thread, I find that you have to use the setData method when using the layout updates section, eg:

<reference name="left">
    <block type="myCompany_Leftbar/Leftbar" name="mycompany.leftbar" template="leftbar/left.phtml">
        <action method="setData"><name>category_id</name><value>3</value></action>
    </block>
</reference>

Then you can access it in the template like so:

echo $this->getCategoryId();

worked like a charm!

bmotters - 09 March 2010 02:48 PM

Doing it as a “category_id” attribute in the block only works in the “{{block}}” construct, where the email template filtering processes the attributes of the {{block ...}} So you can do this from email templates and on Cms pages (which use email templates too), but you can’t do anything analogous with straight “<block>” elements in layouts.  For layouts, you have to use an action:

<block type="catalog/product_list" >
  <action method="setData"><name>category_id</name><value>42</value></action>
</block>

such as was mentioned in a previous post. 

However, I should add I haven’t had a lot of success getting blocks from the Mage Catalog module to work independently of their usual context.  You can define attributes using actions, but blocks defined in the Catalog module seem to depend on a lot of context that is set by the controllers of the Catalog module, and it is difficult to get them to work in other contexts just by setting some attributes, like category_id.  For one thing, a lot of these blocks also set things with Mage::register. 

So this is a reasonable method to pass parameters to simple blocks and custom blocks where you know exactly what has to be set, but it is a bit unpredictable with Mage Catalog blocks.

Thanx, this helped me a lot.