Question

I have controller and it has following code:

class Company_ModuleName_NameController extends Mage_Core_Controller_Front_Action
{

    public function indexAction()
    {
        $this->loadLayout();     
        $this->renderLayout();
    }
}

Then I have configured layout XML in my config.xml. Now I would like to add block that points to .phtml file and when user access my controller, that .phtml file would be shown to user.

Answer 1

First of all you should define layout handle for your controller:

Like this:

<modulename_name_index>

</modulename_name_index>

The you should define where you want to display: content, left, right, another block:

<modulename_name_index>
    <reference name="content">
    </reference name="content">
</modulename_name_index>

And then you define block which will be displayed:

<modulename_name_index>
    <reference name="content">
        <block type="module/blockname" name="blockname" template="templatedir/templatefile.phtml"/>
    </reference name="content">
</modulename_name_index>

Where module/blockname is the name of your block. In the example file should be like this:

Company/ModuleName/Block/Blockname.php.
Your config.xml should be also definded properly so magento understood that with ‘module’ thing it should load particularly your class.
Something like this:

<global>
    ...
    <blocks>
        <module>
            <class>Company_Module_Block</class>
        </module>
    </blocks>
    ...
</global>

UPDATE 1

If you want to simply render some content then you may use Magento’s default block class:

core/template or Mage/Core/Block/Template

This is how your xml file then will look like:

<modulename_name_index>
    <reference name="content">
        <block type="core/template" name="blockname" template="templatedir/templatefile.phtml"/>
    </reference name="content">
</modulename_name_index>

BUT if you have in your .phtml file something like:

$this->getSomethingSpecificValueForCurrentDisplay()

This won’t work. On another side if you have very easy php in your phtml, like below, you don’t need your custom block.

<?php for(i = 0; i++; i< 10){ ?>
     <?php echo "Hello mates" ?>
<?php } ?>