Magento - xml layouts, specify value for ifconfig?

Question

I\'m sure I saw before somewhere, specifying a value for xml ifconfig statements (as default is just boolean). Anyways, disabling modules in the admin doesn\'t actually work

Answer 1

This fits in well with something (self-link) I've been working on.

You can't do exactly what you want without a class rewrite to change the behavior of ifconfig. Here's the code that implements the ifconfig feature.

File: app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Layout.php
protected function _generateAction($node, $parent)
{
    if (isset($node['ifconfig']) && ($configPath = (string)$node['ifconfig'])) {
        if (!Mage::getStoreConfigFlag($configPath)) {
            return $this;
        }
    }

If the presence of an ifconfig is detected and the config value returns true, the action method will not be called. You could rewrite _generateAction and implement your own conditional, but then the standard burdens of maintaining a rewrite fall you on.

A better approach would be to use a helper method in your action paramater. Something like this

<action method="setTemplate">
    <template helper="mymodule/myhelper/switchTemplateIf"/>
</action>

will call setTemplate with the results of a call to

Mage::helper('mymodule/myhelper')->switchTemplateIf();

Implement your custom logic in switchTemplateIf that either keeps the template or changes it and you'll be good to go.

Answer 2

You could create a separate enable setting using nothing but your module's system.xml.

<config>
    <sections>
        <advanced>
            <groups>
                <YOURMODULE>
                    <fields>
                        <enable>
                            <label>YOUR MODULE</label>
                            <frontend_type>select</frontend_type>
                            <source_model>adminhtml/system_config_source_enabledisable</source_model>
                            <show_in_default>1</show_in_default>
                            <show_in_website>1</show_in_website>
                            <show_in_store>1</show_in_store>
                        </enable>
                    </fields>
                </YOURMODULE>
            </groups>
        </advanced>
    </sections>
</config>

Then use the new setting in the layout file:

<action method="setTemplate" ifconfig="advanced/YOURMODULE/enable">
    <template>mytemplate.phtml</template>
</action>