Question

I want to rewrite core/adminthtml/block/widget/tabs.php class which is a super class for core/adminhtml/block/sales/order/view/tabs.php class.

Here is config code for both scenarios:

 <blocks>  
  <adminhtml>  
     <rewrite>
       <sales_order_view_tabs>Jimmy_SalesAffil_Block_Widget_Tabs</sales_order_view_tabs>  
       <widget_tabs>Jimmy_SalesAffil_Block_Widget_Tabs</widget_tabs>  
        .....
     </rewrite>  
  </adminhtml>  
 </blocks> 

While I am able to rewrite ...view/tabs.php, I am not able to rewrite the super class. Why? Is it possible? How?

Answer 1

You can rewrite the parent class, but that will only apply to calls for that class itself. So this call will retrieve the correctly overridden class:

Mage::getBlock("adminhtml/widget_tabs");

This is because the real classname is loaded by Magento using the XML / overrides system. However, if you don’t override the child class, this call will not work as you expect:

Mage::getBlock("admihtml/sales_order_view_tabs");

That’s because the parent class is not specified using Magento’s system, but using regular PHP:

class Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Sales_Order_View_Tabs extends Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Widget_Tabs

If you want to override the parent class, the XML-based override system cannot help you. You can, however, copy the Widget_Tabs class into the local space and Magento will load it there. Make a directory path app/code/local/Mage/Adminhtml/Block/Widget/ and copy Tabs.php into it, and you can make modifications as necessary.

Hope that helps.

Thanks,
Joe