Changing Design For All Module Pages In Magento

Question

I'm doing a custom module in Magento and everything is going swimmingly... except I want to change the base layout template that all pages in the module use. I've done some googling with little success. Anyone have any answers? I want to do something along the lines of:

...
<optionbox>
  <reference name="root">
    <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/empty.phtml</template></action>
  </reference>
</optionbox>

As you may guess, it's a lightbox... I'm a glutton for punishment I guess :)

Answer 1

In my modules I do it within the controller action like so:

public function listAction() {
  $this->loadLayout();
  $this->getLayout()->getBlock('root')->setTemplate('page/2columns-right.phtml');
  $this->renderLayout();
}

Answer 2

have you tried inserting that snippet into your optionbox.xml layout file? It looks like it should work as you have it?

Answer 3

I notice that you've got the root of your layout update as <optionbox> which in theory should cover all controllers and actions under that module. However, I've only ever seen this done with <optionbox_index> where index is from IndexController in your module. So perhaps try this replaced with your controller name:

<layout>
 ...
 <optionbox_index>
   <reference name="root">
     <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/empty.phtml</template></action>
   </reference>
 </optionbox_index>

Also, you should try Alan Storm's LayoutViewer module, instructions on it's use here. That might help you debug it.

Cheers, JD