Dynamic block contents in category page¶

In backend > Catalog > Manage Categories, we can configure a category page and put it on the main menu. The page contents are rendered in

app\design\frontend\base\default\template\catalog\category\view.phtml

If we want to render an HTML table in which its data are taken from the database, we would follow these steps:

Create custom block¶

1. Create a custom block mymodule/mytable with template mymodule/mytable.phtml.
2. Whitelist our block for rendering in the frontend: backend > System > Permissions > Blocks
3. Create a CMS static block: backend > CMS > Static Blocks and set the Content to render from our block with this directive:

   {{block type="mymodule/mytable" template="mymodule/mytable.phtml"}}
   

4. Create a subcategory: backend > Catalog > Manage Categories > Add a subcategory and in the Display Setings tab, set the category attribute Display Mode to Static block only and CMS Block pointing to our block.

Voila, the HTML table is rendered under the menu we just created. However, every time the table in the database is updated, and because CMS blocks rendering are taken from the cache, we would need to refresh the cache.

Render block dynamically¶

What if the table is constantly being updated, or there is an expiry condition on some data which shouldn’t be included? In which case, we would want to render the HTML table dynamically. It’s actually quite easy to do:

1. In the subcategory page in backend, set the Description to this:

   {{block type="mymodule/mytable" template="mymodule/mytable.phtml"}}
   

2. Continue on to the Display Setings tab and set the CMS Block to Please select a static block ….
3. In our config file, either in the module etc/config.xml or in the local.xml, insert the following:

<config>
    <global>
        <catalog>
            <content>
                <tempate_filter>cms/template_filter</tempate_filter> <!-- Note the typo on template must remain as "tempate". -->
            </content>
        </catalog>
    </global>
</config>

That’s it, the table is now rendered dynamically. There ‘s no need to create the CMS static block.