Question

For this in the admin panel /brands/adminhtml_brand/new/ for my custom module, I am supposed to be seeing a page when I want to add a new entry to the database. I am following this tutorial. And my layout.xml is setup correctly.

BrandController.php

class Desbest_Brands_Adminhtml_BrandController extends Mage_Adminhtml_Controller_Action
    public function editAction()
        {
            $id = $this->getRequest()->getParam('id', null);
            $model = Mage::getModel('brands/example');
            if ($id) {
                $model->load((int) $id);
                if ($model->getId()) {
                    $data = Mage::getSingleton('adminhtml/session')->getFormData(true);
                    if ($data) {
                        $model->setData($data)->setId($id);
                    }
                } else {
                    Mage::getSingleton('adminhtml/session')->addError(Mage::helper('brands')->__('Example does not exist'));
                    $this->_redirect('*/*/');
                }
            }
            Mage::register('example_data', $model);

            $this->loadLayout();
            $this->getLayout()->getBlock('head')->setCanLoadExtJs(true);
            $this->renderLayout();
      }
 }

Edit.php

<?php 
class Desbest_Brands_Block_Adminhtml_Example_Edit extends Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Widget_Form_Container
{
    public function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct();

        $this->_objectId = 'id';
        $this->_blockGroup = 'brands';
        $this->_controller = 'adminhtml_example';
        $this->_mode = 'edit';

        $this->_addButton('save_and_continue', array(
                  'label' => Mage::helper('adminhtml')->__('Save And Continue Edit'),
                  'onclick' => 'saveAndContinueEdit()',
                  'class' => 'save',
        ), -100);
        $this->_updateButton('save', 'label', Mage::helper('brands')->__('Save Example'));

        $this->_formScripts[] = "
            function toggleEditor() {
                if (tinyMCE.getInstanceById('form_content') == null) {
                    tinyMCE.execCommand('mceAddControl', false, 'edit_form');
                } else {
                    tinyMCE.execCommand('mceRemoveControl', false, 'edit_form');
                }
            }

            function saveAndContinueEdit(){
                editForm.submit($('edit_form').action+'back/edit/');
            }
        ";
    }

    public function getHeaderText()
    {
        if (Mage::registry('example_data') && Mage::registry('example_data')->getId())
        {
            return Mage::helper('brands')->__('Edit Example "%s"', $this->htmlEscape(Mage::registry('example_data')->getName()));
        } else {
            return Mage::helper('brands')->__('New Example');
        }
    }

}

Grid.php

<?php
class Desbest_Brands_Block_Adminhtml_Example_Grid extends Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Widget_Grid
{
    public function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct();
        $this->setId('example_grid');
        $this->setDefaultSort('id');
        $this->setDefaultDir('desc');
        $this->setSaveParametersInSession(true);
    }

    protected function _prepareCollection()
    {
        $collection = Mage::getModel('brands/example')->getCollection();
        $this->setCollection($collection);
        return parent::_prepareCollection();
    }

    protected function _prepareColumns()
    {
        $this->addColumn('id', array(
            'header'    => Mage::helper('brands')->__('ID'),
            'align'     =>'right',
            'width'     => '50px',
            'index'     => 'id',
        ));

        $this->addColumn('attributelabelid', array(
            'header'    => Mage::helper('brands')->__('Name'),
            'align'     =>'left',
            'index'     => 'name',
        ));

        $this->addColumn('name', array(
            'header'    => Mage::helper('brands')->__('Description'),
            'align'     =>'left',

Answer 1

Based on the URL you’re attempting to access, your controller action should be newAction(), not editAction(), unless you already have newAction() forwarding to edit as in the tutorial.

The tutorial you linked to included a forward from the newAction to the editAction, using this:

public function newAction()
{
    $this->_forward('edit');
}

So, either make sure that you’re using that forward, or access the controller at /brands/adminhtml_brand/edit/ instead, and if you do this, be sure to update your layout handle to target the edit route.

Some things to do to troubleshoot:

• First off, post all the relevant code to the SO question – including layout xml updates
• Always include full class names or file paths of all magento classes / files. Because it doesn’t seem like you’ve done something obviously wrong, it will probably come down to some trivial thing like a typo or mismatched block type / name – that kind of thing has happened to me many times.
• Disable cache if you haven’t already
• Enable block template hints so you know for sure which templates and blocks are being pulled into the page.
• Check exception.log, system.log, and also your PHP error log to see if there’s anything in there.