Question

I’ve tried to set 1column template for home page using my local.xml file:

<cms_index_index>
    <reference name="root">
        <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/1column.phtml</template></action>
    </reference>
</cms_index_index>

But this is doesn’t work. How can I do this?

Answer 1

Homepage is a CMS page. Unfortunately, you can’t assign root template for CMS pages using layout, because they have own attribute “root_template” (cms_page table).
You can change this attribute in the backend (CMS – Pages).
Or you can change it in code:

$homePage = Mage::getModel('cms/page')->load('home', 'identifier');
$homePage->setRootTemplate('one_column');
$homePage->save();

I recommend you to write sql data upgrade, which will update root template value for homepage:

$installer = $this;
/* @var $installer Mage_Core_Model_Resource_Setup */

$installer->startSetup();

$installer->run("
    UPDATE `{$this->getTable('cms_page')}` SET `root_template` = 'one_column' WHERE `identifier` = 'home';
");

$installer->endSetup();