Magento Custom Page Templates using Xml

In Magento it is possible to create more page templates than the traditional 1-column, 2-columns-left (etc) options that we’re given by default. These page templates are defined in XML configuration, which means to add others you’ll need to create a module with config.xml.

In the below example I’ll create a custom page template for my CMS homepage.

app/code/local/Rv/Layouts/etc/config.xml

<config>
  <global>
    <page>
      <layouts>
        <homepage_layout translate="label">
          <label>Homepage Layout</label>
          <template>page/homepage.phtml</template>
        </homepage_layout>
      </layouts>
    </page>
  </global>
</config>

After doing this, simply create homepage.phtml within your theme template’s ‘page’ directory. To declare your module’s existence, don’t forget your module activation file:

app/etc/modules/Rv_Layouts.xml

<config>
  <modules>
    <Rv_Layouts>
      <active>true</active>
      <codePool>local</codePool>
    </Rv_Layouts>
  </modules>
</config>

Following this, you will now have ‘Homepage Layout’ as an available page template for

products, CMS pages, categories and so on.