PHP & Magento. Adding convert multiple PHP strings for a Helper/Data.php

Question

I have this PHP code (found of Stackoverflow): This shows the available attributes on the catalog view page in Magento.

 <?php if($_product->isConfigurable()): ?>

      <?php //get attributes
      $attributes = $_product->getTypeInstance(true)->getConfigurableAttributes($_product) ?>
      <?php if(count($attributes)): ?>
        <ul>
        <?php foreach($attributes as $att): ?>
          <?php $pAtt=$att->getProductAttribute();
            //get the child products
            $allProducts = $_product->getTypeInstance(true)->getUsedProducts(null, $_product);
            $frontValues =array() ?>
          <li><?php echo $pAtt->getFrontendLabel() ?>
           <ul>
           <?php foreach($allProducts as $p): ?>

             <?php //check stock, status, ...
             //do not show unsaleable options
           if(!$p->isSaleable()) continue; ?>
             <?php $out=$p->getAttributeText($pAtt->getName()); ?>
             <?php $frontValues[$out]=$out; ?>
           <?php endforeach ?>
            <li><?php echo implode('</li><li>', $frontValues) ?></li>
           </ul>
          </li>
        <?php endforeach ?>
        </ul>
      <?php endif ?>
    <?php endif ?>

But due to my theme i have to include this in a Helper file (data.php)

Could anyone help me convert this into a piece of code suitable for the data.php?

I tried to remove all <?php and ?>. But that doesn't work.

Maybe try Mage::app() at the top – Tim Hallman May 23 '15 at 23:46 — Tim Hallman, May 23 '15 at 23:46

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 24 '15 at 15:20

It won't help you on a long term if we just rewrite the code for your helper somehow (which we probably can't due to some missing information).

It's not a good practise to generate a lot of output via Helpers. Better use blocks and corresponding .phtml files for this.

What you need to know and do:

The code you posted above is intended to run in a template file (.phtml) which is a mix of PHP and HTML. That's why you have a lot of PHP-Code (enclosed by PHP opening and closing tags) mixed with HTML (<ul>, <li>,...).

To do:

Remove the PHP-Tags (<?php ... ?>)
Generate the output HTML-code: Define a variable like $html that 'collects' all the output you want to generate in your helper method and that is returned. Then add all the output to it: $html .= '<ul>'; instead of <ul>. At the end of the function, return the output: return $html;
Make sure the $_product variable is available in your helper method (depending on your method(s) )

This is quite hackish though.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 23 '15 at 23:50

This may or may not help you out as you may need to return the output but its a start

    public function getAvailableAttributesHelper() {

    //Get Current Product
    $product_id = Mage::registry('current_product')->getId();
    $_product   = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($product_id);

    if($_product->isConfigurable()):

    //Get Attributes
    $attributes = $_product->getTypeInstance(true)->getConfigurableAttributes($_product);
    if(count($attributes)): 
    //<ul>
    foreach($attributes as $att): 
    $pAtt=$att->getProductAttribute();
    //get the child products
    $allProducts = $_product->getTypeInstance(true)->getUsedProducts(null, $_product);
    $frontValues =array();
    //<li>
    $pAtt->getFrontendLabel();
    //<ul>
    foreach($allProducts as $p):
    //check stock, status, ...
    //do not show unsaleable options
    if(!$p->isSaleable()) continue;
    $out=$p->getAttributeText($pAtt->getName());
    $frontValues[$out]=$out;
    endforeach;
    //<li>
     implode('</li><li>', $frontValues);
    //</li>
    //</ul>
    //</li>
    endforeach;
    //</ul>
    endif;
    endif;

    //Call in template files(.phtml)
    //echo Mage::helper('mymodule')->getAvailableAttributesHelper()

    }

PHP & Magento. Adding convert multiple PHP strings for a Helper/Data.php

2 Answers2