Magento: setting variables via the "Custom Layout Updates" XML on a per-category basis?

Question

I'd like to be able to set variables using the "Custom Layout Updates" box which appears under Manage Categories -> [Some Category] -> Custom Design, to specify pieces of data which can be used in the category page template list.phtml.

So far, I've tried using this:

<reference name="product_list">
    <action method="setData">
        <name>custom_banner_type</name>
        <value>single</value>
    </action>
    <action method="setData">
        <name>custom_banner_position</name>
        <value>3</value>
    </action>
</reference>

But when I try echo $this->getData("custom_banner_type"); inside list.phtml the data is not available.

I've also tried getting the data inside the _beforeToHtml() function inside List.php, the template's controller, but this also does nothing!

So is there some way I can pass data/variables using the Custom Layout Updates XML? It has to be done through there, because the data will change for every single category so I can't use hard-coded layout files.

Answer 1

In which layout handle are you doing this? catalog_category_view and catalog_category_layered should be used. Maybe you coul use the default Magento way for setting data with XML. Magento sets data in xml with the set function, which I find more readable than setData in XML.

Example:

<catalog_category_view>
  <reference name="product_list">
    <action method="setCustomBannerType"><value>single</value></action>
    <action method="setCustomBannerPosition"><value>3</value></action>
  </reference>
</catalog_category_view>

To retrieve the data you could use $this->getData('custom_banner_type'); but also $this->getCustomBannerType(); which is the same. If you want to know more about this I would suggest looking at magic methods (http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.magic.php)

I don't know if cache is enabled, if so flush the cache and it should work.