Magento: show products from a specific category in the footer

Question

I'm building a "Product of the Month" block for the footer. It should load a category's products and display the first one.

This is my template file custom/featured-product.phtml:

<?php $_productCollection = $this->getLoadedProductCollection() ?>

<div class="featured-product">
    <h2><?php echo $this->__('Product of the Month') ?></h2>

    <?php foreach ($_productCollection as $_product): ?>
        <div class="item">
            <a class="product-image" href="<?php echo $_product->getProductUrl() ?>">
                <img src="<?php echo $this->helper('catalog/image')->init($_product, 'small_image')->resize(200); ?>" alt="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($this->getImageLabel($_product, 'small_image')) ?>" />
            </a>

            <a class="product-name" href="<?php echo $_product->getProductUrl() ?>"><?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_product->getName()) ?></a>

            <?php echo $this->getPriceHtml($_product, true) ?>
        </div>

        <?php
        // Note: Exit after first product.
        break;
        ?>
    <?php endforeach ?>
</div>

It's just a simplified version of Magento's product list template: catalog/product/list.phtml

WORKING

When embedding the block in a CMS Page, it works fine. Example:

{{block type="catalog/product_list" category_id="13" template="custom/featured-product.phtml" }}

NOT WORKING

When embedding the block via local.xml, it fails. The correct markup is returned but the specified category is not loaded. Instead a random (I don't how they're selected) set of products is loaded.

My code in local.xml:

<default>
    <reference name="footer">
        <block type="catalog/product_list" name="custom.featuredProduct" as="product_of_the_month" category_id="13" template="custom/featured-product.phtml" />
    </reference>
</default>

For completeness, I am rendering the block explicitly in page/html/footer.phtml like so:

<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('product_of_the_month') ?>

Any ideas?

My best guess is my local.xml is incorrect. Is there a parent block I need to load?

[Updates]

My original code crashes the product page. The workaround is not basing the code so heavily on the Magento core file: catalog/product/list.phtml. Specifically avoiding this line:

<?php $_productCollection = $this->getLoadedProductCollection() ?>

[Solution]

A working version with examples for use in CMS Pages and LayoutXML is included here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/12288000/1497746

Answer 1

Found a working solution using Alan Storm's advice.

/template/custom/featured-product.phtml

<?php
$_categoryId = $this->getCategoryId();

$_productCollection = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($_categoryId)
    ->getProductCollection()
    ->addAttributeToSelect('*')
    ->addAttributeToFilter('status', 1)
    ->addAttributeToFilter('visibility', 4)
    ->setOrder('price', 'ASC');
?>

<div class="featured-product">
    <h2><?php echo $this->__( $this->getLabel() ); ?></h2>

    <?php foreach ($_productCollection as $_product): ?>
        <div class="item">
            <a class="product-image" href="<?php echo $_product->getProductUrl() ?>">
                <img src="<?php echo $this->helper('catalog/image')->init($_product, 'small_image')->resize(200); ?>" alt="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($this->getImageLabel($_product, 'small_image')) ?>" />
            </a>

            <a class="product-name" href="<?php echo $_product->getProductUrl() ?>"><?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_product->getName()) ?></a>

            <?php echo $this->getPriceHtml($_product, true) ?>
        </div>

        <?php
        // Note: Exit after first product.
        break;
        ?>
    <?php endforeach ?>
</div>

In short, the collection is manually generated rather than receiving a collection (as my initial attempt did):

<?php $_productCollection = $this->getLoadedProductCollection() ?>
<?php $_collectionSize = $_productCollection->count(); ?>

Using in a CMS Page:

{{block type="core/template" category_id="13" label="Product of the Month" template="custom/featured-product.phtml" }}

Using in a template:

/layout/local.xml

<default>
    <reference name="footer">
        <block type="core/template" name="custom.featuredProduct" as="featured_product" template="custom/featured-product.phtml">
            <action method="setData"><key>category_id</key><value>13</value></action>
            <action method="setData"><key>label</key><value>Product of the Month</value></action>
        </block>
    </reference>
</default>

/template/page/html/footer.phtml

<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('featured_product') ?>

Helpful resources:

How to get a product collection:

• http://overlycaffeinated.com/2011/02/get-all-sale-products-from-a-category-in-magento/
• Magento products by categories

Using magic getters/setters:

• https://stackoverflow.com/a/4008251/1497746
• https://stackoverflow.com/a/4006374/1497746
• http://www.magestore.com/blog/2012/02/29/magento-cetificate-pass-variables-from-layout-to-block/