How to show more products in the Prestashop Specials module

Nemo — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 10:12:02 +0000

In today’s tutorial we will see how to display more discounted products in the Prestashop Specials Block module, by using a native function the software already provides.

Download Project Files

Version used: Prestashop 1.5.6

Introduction

Today will make use of the native getPricesDrop method the Product class kindly provides, to display as many discounted products we want in the sidebar block.

Note that unlike previous tutorials, we will now directly edit core files, so that even the beginner user can tag along without having to know how to create a module from scratch, or how to use overrides. Therefore, please note that the changes we are going to apply will be gone if you upgrade Prestashop. If you want to do it, be sure you keep a copy of the blockspecials folder, so that you can always paste it over the original one, once the upgrade is complete. Of course, there is a slight chance you will see small bugs pop out in this case.

The ‘cache’ problem and the default theme’s override

There are 2 preliminary things to mention: firstly, the Specials Block Module (named blockspecials) is cached. This means that our changes will not be reflected unless we clear smarty cache upon modifying it; secondly, if you use the default theme, the blockspecials module has a template file in the theme’s folder, which is the one we need to edit.

Now that we know this, let’s get started!

Modifying the Specials Block Module class

Reach out modules/blockspecials/ and open up blockspecials.php. Now locate the hookRightColumn method, which looks approximately like this (mine is taken from 1.5.6):


	public function hookRightColumn($params)
	{
		if (Configuration::get('PS_CATALOG_MODE'))
			return;
		
		// We need to create multiple caches because the products are sorted randomly
		$random = date('Ymd').'|'.round(rand(1, max(Configuration::get('BLOCKSPECIALS_NB_CACHES'), 1)));

		if (!Configuration::get('BLOCKSPECIALS_NB_CACHES') || !$this->isCached('blockspecials.tpl', $this->getCacheId('blockspecials|'.$random)))
		{
			if (!($special = Product::getRandomSpecial((int)$params['cookie']->id_lang)) && !Configuration::get('PS_BLOCK_SPECIALS_DISPLAY'))
				return;

			$this->smarty->assign(array(
				'special' => $special,
				'priceWithoutReduction_tax_excl' => Tools::ps_round($special['price_without_reduction'], 2),
				'mediumSize' => Image::getSize(ImageType::getFormatedName('medium')),
			));
		}

		return $this->display(__FILE__, 'blockspecials.tpl', $this->getCacheId('blockspecials|'.$random));
	}

Now, look closely at the following snippet

	$special = Product::getRandomSpecial((int)$params['cookie']->id_lang)

This is the code that grabs a single random discounted product. We need to replace this with another method, which instead grabs a list of discounted products.

Therefore, change the snippet into this:

	$specials = Product::getPricesDrop((int)$params['cookie']->id_lang, 0, 5)

Explanation: as mentioned at the beginning of the article, we are making use of the built-in function Prestashop already provides with the Product Class: getPricesDrop. This is called on the ‘price-drop’ page, and allows you to retrieve a list of all the currently active specials, with pagination. As we don’t need pagination, we use the second parameter to tell the method that we want to display page 0, and to grab 5 elements. Of course, feel free to grab as many as you want, by changing the last parameter.

At this point, as we also changed the variable name to specials to be more descriptive, we need to amend the following part as well:


		$this->smarty->assign(array(
			'special' => $special,
			'priceWithoutReduction_tax_excl' => Tools::ps_round($special['price_without_reduction'], 2),
			'mediumSize' => Image::getSize(ImageType::getFormatedName('medium')),
		));

So change special into specials, and get rid of the second element in the array, as it’s referring to a single product price


		$this->smarty->assign(array(
			'specials' => $specials,
			'mediumSize' => Image::getSize(ImageType::getFormatedName('medium')),
		));

At this point, the hookRightColumn method should look like this:

	public function hookRightColumn($params)
	{
		if (Configuration::get('PS_CATALOG_MODE'))
			return;
		
		// We need to create multiple caches because the products are sorted randomly
		$random = date('Ymd').'|'.round(rand(1, max(Configuration::get('BLOCKSPECIALS_NB_CACHES'), 1)));

		if (!Configuration::get('BLOCKSPECIALS_NB_CACHES') || !$this->isCached('blockspecials.tpl', $this->getCacheId('blockspecials|'.$random)))
		{
			if (!($specials = Product::getPricesDrop((int)$params['cookie']->id_lang, 0, 5)) && !Configuration::get('PS_BLOCK_SPECIALS_DISPLAY'))
				return;

			$this->smarty->assign(array(
				'specials' => $specials,
				'mediumSize' => Image::getSize(ImageType::getFormatedName('medium')),
			));

		}

		return $this->display(__FILE__, 'blockspecials.tpl', $this->getCacheId('blockspecials|'.$random));
	}

Now login to the back office, go to Advanced Parameters, Performance and hit the ‘Clear Smarty cache & Autoload cache’ button. Note that this button is not present if your Prestashop version is lower than 1.5.5. If this is the case, go to the cache/smarty/cache folder and delete blockspecials. If the folder is not there, delete everything but index.php.

Also, if your Prestashop version is quite old, you might need to go to tools/smarty/ to find the cache folder/

Editing the Specials Module Template

Okay, we have our discounted products list. However, if we now load the front page while the module is activated, we will receive an error, as it’s still referring to the old variable:

Let’s take care of it. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, if you use the default theme you can reach themes/default/modules/blockspecials and edit blockspecials.tpl from there. If you don’t, check the presence of that file in your theme folder, and if it’s absent, open the original blockspecials.tpl found in the module folder (the same folder where we modified the .php file).

It should look approximately like this (again, Prestashop 1.5.6 here!):

{*
* 2007-2013 PrestaShop
*
* NOTICE OF LICENSE
*
* This source file is subject to the Academic Free License (AFL 3.0)
* that is bundled with this package in the file LICENSE.txt.
* It is also available through the world-wide-web at this URL:
* http://opensource.org/licenses/afl-3.0.php
* If you did not receive a copy of the license and are unable to
* obtain it through the world-wide-web, please send an email
* to license@prestashop.com so we can send you a copy immediately.
*
* DISCLAIMER
*
* Do not edit or add to this file if you wish to upgrade PrestaShop to newer
* versions in the future. If you wish to customize PrestaShop for your
* needs please refer to http://www.prestashop.com for more information.
*
*  @author PrestaShop SA 
*  @copyright  2007-2013 PrestaShop SA
*  @license    http://opensource.org/licenses/afl-3.0.php  Academic Free License (AFL 3.0)
*  International Registered Trademark & Property of PrestaShop SA
*}



	{l s='Specials' mod='blockspecials'}
	

{if $special}
		
			
				getImageLink($special.link_rewrite, $special.id_image, 'medium_default')|escape:'html'}" alt="{$special.legend|escape:html:'UTF-8'}" height="{$mediumSize.height}" width="{$mediumSize.width}" title="{$special.name|escape:html:'UTF-8'}" />
			
			
				{if !$PS_CATALOG_MODE}
					{if $special.specific_prices}
						{assign var='specific_prices' value=$special.specific_prices}
						{if $specific_prices.reduction_type == 'percentage' && ($specific_prices.from == $specific_prices.to OR ($smarty.now|date_format:'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S' <= $specific_prices.to && $smarty.now|date_format:'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S' >= $specific_prices.from))}
							-{$specific_prices.reduction*100|floatval}%
						{/if}
					{/if}
				{/if}

					{$special.name|escape:html:'UTF-8'}
				{if !$PS_CATALOG_MODE}
					{if !$priceDisplay}{displayWtPrice p=$special.price_without_reduction}{else}{displayWtPrice p=$priceWithoutReduction_tax_excl}{/if}
					{if !$priceDisplay}{displayWtPrice p=$special.price}{else}{displayWtPrice p=$special.price_tax_exc}{/if}
				{/if}
			
		
		
			» {l s='All specials' mod='blockspecials'}
		
{else}
		{l s='No specials at this time' mod='blockspecials'}
{/if}

The modification we need to apply can be done in a single step:


{*
* 2007-2013 PrestaShop
*
* NOTICE OF LICENSE
*
* This source file is subject to the Academic Free License (AFL 3.0)
* that is bundled with this package in the file LICENSE.txt.
* It is also available through the world-wide-web at this URL:
* http://opensource.org/licenses/afl-3.0.php
* If you did not receive a copy of the license and are unable to
* obtain it through the world-wide-web, please send an email
* to license@prestashop.com so we can send you a copy immediately.
*
* DISCLAIMER
*
* Do not edit or add to this file if you wish to upgrade PrestaShop to newer
* versions in the future. If you wish to customize PrestaShop for your
* needs please refer to http://www.prestashop.com for more information.
*
*  @author PrestaShop SA 
*  @copyright  2007-2013 PrestaShop SA
*  @license    http://opensource.org/licenses/afl-3.0.php  Academic Free License (AFL 3.0)
*  International Registered Trademark & Property of PrestaShop SA
*}



	{l s='Specials' mod='blockspecials'}
	

{if $specials}
		
			{foreach from=$specials item=special}
				
					getImageLink($special.link_rewrite, $special.id_image, 'medium_default')|escape:'html'}" alt="{$special.legend|escape:html:'UTF-8'}" height="{$mediumSize.height}" width="{$mediumSize.width}" title="{$special.name|escape:html:'UTF-8'}" />

					{if !$PS_CATALOG_MODE}
						{if $special.specific_prices}
							{assign var='specific_prices' value=$special.specific_prices}
							{if $specific_prices.reduction_type == 'percentage' && ($specific_prices.from == $specific_prices.to OR ($smarty.now|date_format:'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S' <= $specific_prices.to && $smarty.now|date_format:'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S' >= $specific_prices.from))}
								-{$specific_prices.reduction*100|floatval}%
							{/if}
						{/if}
					{/if}

						{$special.name|escape:html:'UTF-8'}
					{if !$PS_CATALOG_MODE}
						{if !$priceDisplay}{displayWtPrice p=$special.price_without_reduction}{else}{displayWtPrice p=$priceWithoutReduction_tax_excl}{/if}
						{if !$priceDisplay}{displayWtPrice p=$special.price}{else}{displayWtPrice p=$special.price_tax_exc}{/if}
					{/if}
				
			{/foreach}
		
		
			» {l s='All specials' mod='blockspecials'}
		
{else}
		{l s='No specials at this time' mod='blockspecials'}
{/if}

Explanation: first, we refer to $specialsinstead of $special. Then, inside the

, we add {foreach from=$specials item=special}, and close the loop right before the closing , so that everything inside will be valid for each of our special product. Then, we get rid of:

			
				getImageLink($special.link_rewrite, $special.id_image, 'medium_default')|escape:'html'}" alt="{$special.legend|escape:html:'UTF-8'}" height="{$mediumSize.height}" width="{$mediumSize.width}" title="{$special.name|escape:html:'UTF-8'}" />

And place”


getImageLink($special.link_rewrite, $special.id_image, 'medium_default')|escape:'html'}" alt="{$special.legend|escape:html:'UTF-8'}" height="{$mediumSize.height}" width="{$mediumSize.width}" title="{$special.name|escape:html:'UTF-8'}" />

At the top of the remaining li item.

Save and refresh, you should get something like this:

Last cosmetic touches

We have the list, but it looks ugly. Let’s make it at least decent! Back to the original blockspecials folder in modules/, open blockspecials.css

Locate and change this:

#special_block_right li.product_image {
	padding-right:10px;
	width:62px;
}

Into this

#special_block_right li .product-img {
	float: left;
	display:block;
	margin-right:10px;
	width:62px;
}

Then adjust the list element size by changing this:

#special_block_right .products li {
	padding:15px 0;
	width: 130px;
	border:none;
}

Into this

#special_block_right .products li {
	padding:15px 0;
	width: 100%;
	border:none;
	position:relative;
	border-bottom:1px dotted #ccc;
}

Modify the reduction label from this:

#special_block_right .products span.reduction {
	display:block;
	float:right;
	padding:0 0 0 10px;
	font-weight:bold;
	font-size:12px;
	color:#fff;
	background:url(img/bg_reduction.png) no-repeat 0 0
}

To this

#special_block_right .products span.reduction {
	display:block;
	position:absolute;
	right: 0;
	bottom: 30px;
	padding:0 0 0 10px;
	font-weight:bold;
	font-size:12px;
	color:#fff;
	background:url(img/bg_reduction.png) no-repeat 0 0
}

And lastly add the following at the end of the file:

#special_block_right .s_title_block, #special_block_right .price-discount, #special_block_right .price {
	float: left;
	display: block;
	width: 100px;
}

We are done!

The post How to show more products in the Prestashop Specials module appeared first on NemoPS.