Question

I have a module Namespace/Search, which was installed when I got here. I took <[namespace]_index_index> contents from it and have it here. This is from a currently working module.

<reference name="root">
    <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/2columns-right.phtml</template></action>
 </reference>
 <reference name="content">
    <block type="search/search" name="search" template="ifi_search/index.phtml" />
</reference>

I’ve used the above as a template for the helloworld module.

<reference name="root">
    <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/2columns-right.phtml</template></action>
</reference>
<reference name="content">
    <block type="helloworld/helloworld" name="helloworld" template="helloworld/helloworld.phtml" />
</reference>

With the second example I’m left with an entirely blank page, developer mode is turned on. To the extend of my knowledge on the topic I don’t have any other information to present for debugging. If there’s anything that would be useful if I added, please comment. I’m unsure if I can reproduce this problem at this point.

Answer 1

You need to add the output attribute in your block declaration:

<block type="page/html" name="root" template="simple_page.phtml" output="toHtml"/>

This marks the block as an output block and sets the block rendering method to toHtml(). Output blocks are rendering entry points in the call to Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Action->renderLayout().