Managing Blocks

Overriding block templates

The block templates includes all the meta-data ("tagging") that is placed in your store, and sent to Nosto while your users are browsing the pages. The tagging is populated automatically, but if you wish to do some customisation it is easy to override these templates.

This is done by simply copying the template file into your theme directory and editing it. Magento will know about the overridden file automatically after the cache is cleared.

Please note that the product tagging should be overridden as describe in the previous section. This is important because product data is also transferred to Nosto using an API and not only through the tagging. If you only override the block template, then Nosto will receive mixed information about the same products.

Example:

Overriding the logged in customer tagging.

Copy /app/design/frontend/base/default/template/nostotagging/customer.phtml to /app/design/frontend/THEME/default/template/nostotagging/customer.phtml and then edit the file.

Moving recommendations

To move the default recommendation blocks on your site, you can define the new positions in your theme local.xml file located in your theme folder under app/design/frontend/THEME/default/layout/local.xml. If the file does not exists, just create it. Then define the rules inside the <layout> section.

Example:

Moving the topmost recommendation block on the category page to be positioned after the bottommost one.

    <catalog_category_default>
        <update handle="nosto_move_category_recommendations" />
    </catalog_category_default>
    <catalog_category_layered>
        <update handle="nosto_move_category_recommendations" />
    </catalog_category_layered>
    <nosto_move_category_recommendations>
        <reference name="content">
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.category1</name></action>
            <action method="insert">
                <blockName>nosto.page.category1</blockName>
                <siblingName>nosto.page.category2</siblingName>
                <after>1</after>
            </action>
        </reference>
    </nosto_move_category_recommendations>

Removing recommendations

To remove the default recommendation blocks from being rendered by the extension, you can remove them from the layout. This is useful in case you wish to include the recommendations yourself in your theme, but want to keep the rest of the extension functionality.

To remove them from the layout, open the local.xml file located in your theme folder under app/design/frontend/THEME/default/layout/local.xml. If the file does not exists, just create it. Then add the following lines inside the <layout> section of the file.

    <default>
        <reference name="content">
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.top</name></action>
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.column.left</name></action>
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.column.right</name></action>
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.footer</name></action>
        </reference>
    </default>
    <cms_index_index>
        <reference name="content">
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.home1</name></action>
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.home2</name></action>
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.home3</name></action>
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.home4</name></action>
        </reference>
    </cms_index_index>
    <checkout_cart_index>
        <reference name="content">
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.cart1</name></action>
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.cart2</name></action>
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.cart3</name></action>
        </reference>
    </checkout_cart_index>
    <catalog_product_view>
        <reference name="content">
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.product1</name></action>
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.product2</name></action>
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.product3</name></action>
        </reference>
    </catalog_product_view>
    <catalogsearch_result_index>
        <reference name="content">
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.search1</name></action>
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.search2</name></action>
        </reference>
    </catalogsearch_result_index>
    <catalog_category_default>
        <reference name="content">
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.category1</name></action>
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.category2</name></action>
        </reference>
    </catalog_category_default>
    <catalog_category_layered>
        <reference name="content">
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.category1</name></action>
            <action method="unsetChild"><name>nosto.page.category2</name></action>
        </reference>
    </catalog_category_layered>

Note that you can also just remove the blocks you want to, instead of removing all of them.

Using direct include for loading Nosto

Please note that as of 2.8.0 direct include is built-in and it will be used always.

In some cases it makes sense to include script directly instead of using the regular embed script to load Nosto. There might be for example conflicting javascript that prevents Nosto script from loading. In order to use the direct include script you must create a custom template file and change Magento config to use the custom template.

Create file /app/design/frontend/base/default/template/local/nosto-direct-include.phtml and copy paste following content into the file. If the local directory doesn't exist, you can simply create it.

<?php
/**
 * Nosto direct include
 * @var $this Nosto_Tagging_Block_Embed
 */
?>

<?php if ($this->getServerAddress() && $this->getAccountName()): ?>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="//<?php echo $this->getServerAddress() ?>/include/<?php echo $this->getAccountName(); ?>" async></script>
<?php endif; ?>

To to make Nosto extension to use this file open the local.xml file located in your theme folder under app/design/frontend/THEME/default/layout/local.xml. If the file does not exists, please create it. Then add the following lines inside the <layout> section of the file.

    <default>
        <!-- Overrides Nosto embed script -->
        <reference name="nosto.embed">
            <action method="setTemplate">
                <template>local/nosto-direct-include.phtml</template>
            </action>
        </reference>
    </default>

If you created the local.xml file and your installation doesn't have any other local customisations the contents of local.xml should look like this

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<layout version="1.0.0">
    <default>
        <!-- Overrides Nosto embed script -->
        <reference name="nosto.embed">
            <action method="setTemplate">
                <template>local/nosto-direct-include.phtml</template>
            </action>
        </reference>
    </default>
</layout>

After you have done the changes described above clear you cache and verify that Nosto works normally.

Disabling the customer tagging

Create file /app/design/frontend/base/default/template/local/empty-customer.phtml and copy paste following content into the file. If the directory local doesn't exist, you can simply create it.

<?php
/**
 * Nosto customer tagging - disabled
 */
?>
<!-- Nosto customer tagging is disabled -->

To to make Nosto extension to use this template file open the local.xml file located in your theme folder under app/design/frontend/THEME/default/layout/local.xml. If the file does not exists, please create it. Then add the following lines inside the <layout> section of the file.

    <default>
        <reference name="nosto.customer">
            <action method="setTemplate">
                <template>local/empty-customer.phtml</template>
            </action>
        </reference>
    </default>

If you created the local.xml from scratch and your installation doesn't have any other local customisations the contents of local.xml should look like this

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<layout version="1.0.0">
    <default>
        <reference name="nosto.customer">
            <action method="setTemplate">
                <template>local/empty-customer.phtml</template>
            </action>
        </reference>
    </default>
</layout>```

After you have done the changes described above clear your store cache and verify that Nosto works normally. Also try to login to your store as a customer and double check that customer tagging does not exist in source code.