[Prestashop development] Lesson 2: How to create a New page, New controller in Prestashop website?

One page ( it can be called as a controller) in Prestashop website is a properly page, you can directly view it from a URL like Product page, Category page, CMS page…

In this post, we will take to help you how to create a new page, a new controller in Frontend (website) of Prestashop system.

Step 1: Create and Install a your prestashop custom module based on this post: Lesson 1: How to create a New module for Prestashop?

In this post, our prestashop custom module is buyaddonsexam module.

Step 2: Create a template *.tpl file for new page (controller)

1.Create a new directory: modules\your_module_name\views\templates\front

2.If you want use this controller in Prestashop 1.6, Create a template file: modules\your_module_name\views\templates\front\demo_template16.tpl with the content that contains any HTML, Smarty code, example:

<h2>Hello</h2>
<p> This is my New page</p>

Something…

3.If you want use this controller in Pretashop 1.7, Create a template file: modules\your_module_name\views\templates\front\demo_template17.tpl with the content that contains any HTML, Smarty code:

{extends file=’page.tpl’}
{block name=’page_content’}
Your HTML, Smarty Code…
{/block}

Note: A template file (*.tpl) for Prestashop 1.7 required 2 lines:

{extends file=’page.tpl’}

{block name=’page_content’} …

You must write your HTML, Smarty code to output your content between {block name=’page_content’} and {/block}

Step 3: Create a PHP Controller file for new page. In my example, my controller is named “demo”.

1.Create a new PHP file in modules\your_module\controllers\front\your_controller.php

Example my file: modules\buyaddonsexam\controllers\front\demo.php

2. Declare a PHP Class is named Your_moduleYour_controllerModuleFrontController contains initContent() method like sample file:

class BuyaddonsExamDemoModuleFrontController extends ModuleFrontController

{

public function initContent()

{

if (Tools::version_compare(_PS_VERSION_, ‘1.7’, ‘>=’)) {

$this ->setTemplate(‘module:buyaddonsexam/views/templates/front/demo_template17.tpl’);

} else {

$this->setTemplate(‘demo_template16.tpl’);

}

parent::initContent();

}

}

Change this PHP code to your controller:

BuyaddonsExamDemoModuleFrontController to your Class name: [Your_module][Your controller]ModuleFrontController
module:buyaddonsexam/views/templates/front/demo_template17.tpl to your template file for Prestashop 1.7 with formatted path: module:[Your_module]/views/templates/front/[your_template_file].tpl

Step 5: View your page in browser.

Go to your prestashop website, enter URL: http://your-prestashop-store/index.php?controller=[Your_controller]&fc=module&module=[Your_module]

My example: http://your-prestashop-store/index.php?controller=demo&fc=module&module=buyaddonsexam

You can view your a new page like this in Prestashop 1.7

In Prestashop 1.6, the page output:

How to output variables from PHP file into page?

Step 1: In your PHP controller file, you have some variables. if you want display them in a prestashop page, you must assign there variables to template file (*.tpl) with the function: $this->context->smarty->assign(“name”, $value);