Magento

Hi !

I’m new to Magento.  I’ve read the designers guide and have implemented a theme on my magento site. I can’t figure out many things that are not properly described in the designers guide so i seek help. I shall be regularly asking my questions here - so that this post becomes a resource for all new members.

The first set of questions :

1.  I want to move the shopping cart block from the right col to the left col - how do i do that ?

2.  I want to add my own callout to the right col below the community poll block - how do i do that ?

What i couldn’t understand from the designers guide - where are the content blocks placed in the layout xml ?

Thanks

Answer to question 1.

Open up the checkout.xml file and change:

<reference name="right">
<block type="checkout/cart_sidebar" name="cart_sidebar" before="-" template="checkout/cart/sidebar.phtml"/>
</reference>

to:

<reference name="left">
<block type="checkout/cart_sidebar" name="cart_sidebar" before="-" template="checkout/cart/sidebar.phtml"/>
</reference>

Keep in mind that this change will make the shopping cart block display only in the left column and only if it is available. In other words, there are pages such as the product view pages which only have a right column and thus the shopping cart block would not display.

Now to question 2.

Open up the poll.xml and just before “</default>” at the top, insert the following:

<reference name="right">
<block type="core/template" name="left.permanent.callout" template="callouts/left_col.phtml">
<action method="setImgSrc"><src>images/media/col_left_callout.jpg</src></action>
<action method="setImgAlt" translate="alt" module="catalog"><alt>Our customer service is available 24/7. Call us at (800) DEMO-NUMBER.</alt></action>
<action method="setLinkUrl"><url>checkout/cart</url></action>
</block>
</reference>

Now all you have to do is customize the “<action>” tags and upload your image file to the desired direcory and you’re good to go.

Hope this helps. Let me know if it doesn’t.

Thanks. That helped

Another question.  I’m looking at a product page and with template path hints on, i can see that it is opening /default//default/template/page/2columns-right.phtml .  When i look at the code of 2columns-right.phtml , it just shows me <?php echo $this->getChildHtml('right') ?> and all the right blocks appear.  Where do these right blocks come from ? If i want to change the order of these blocks, how do i do that ?

In my case, the “Related prodcuts” block in above the “My Cart” block, i would like it to be below

Please visit the following thread, it should answer your question:

http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/7471/

Let me know if you need anything else.