Ah, open source. The Magento core codebase, layouts and templates are right there, warts and all, just daring you to give in to temptation and ignore the “do not edit this file!” warning at the top of each distributed file. We all know the guilty pleasure of instant gratification that comes with tweaking a word, or a layout, or a core class directly in the source and seeing our fix immediately on the site. It seems especially rewarding after the hour or two it took just to hunt down the right cog in The Machine. And really, who has time to learn entire frameworks and build a module, just to tweak the way a breadcrumb gets output?
But then it’s 500 (or 5,000!) lines of “little tweaks” later and you need to upgrade. And you’re screwed. And a couple extra xml files and a separate tree of folders and files doesn’t seem like such a bad idea anymore.
Well, okay, time to roll up your sleeves and learn this durn extension framework that the brainiacs at Varien/Magento have so lovingly constructed.
Layouts and Templates and Blocks, Oh My
classyllama.com has a great article on how to modify one or two things in a core layout without (1) modifying it directly in core or (2) having to make a copy of the whole layout file into your theme just to tweak one line:
http://classyllama.com/development/magento-development/the-better-way-to-modify-magento-layout/
Now that I understand this layout stuff, I’m doing a lot less messing around directly in theme templates. By the way, if you are editing the factory-supplied Magento templates and layouts directly, for shame! Set up a theme and make all your changes in the theme.
Update: another great article on navigating the Magento layout framework:
http://alanstorm.com/layouts_blocks_and_templates
OO PHP? Isn’t that like oil and water?
The article linked below offers a lucid explanation of how to roll your own modules that extend the core Model, Controller, Resource, and Block classes (it’s a little different for each case) to override the core behavior in Magento. Not for beginners, you really need to have a handle on OO programming. Again, this is cool because you don’t have to edit a core file directly (where changes will get blown away in an upgrade) and you don’t have to copy the whole file just to tweak one function. The latter strategy prevents you from reaping the benefits of any bugfixes or new features in that file in the next upgrade, and could even cause serious problems/bugs as your copy gets out of sync with the core codebase.
http://prattski.com/2010/06/24/magento-overriding-core-files-blocks-models-resources-controllers/
For some reason that comprehensive article does not include instructions for overriding a function in a helper class (yet another special case). This article has an example for that:
http://blog.chapagain.com.np/magento-block-controller-model-helper-override/
Happy coding!