Project structure is one of the most important differences between Magento 1 and Magento 2. To create a custom frontend view in Magento, the developer needs to understand module development, controllers, layouts, blocks, and templates. The process of creating a custom frontend view in Magento 2 is quite similar to the Magento 1.x. The major difference is the very different file structure in Magento 2.
In this blog, I will create a custom frontend view in Magento 2 and test it on a storefront. For the purpose of this blog, I assume that you have successfully installed Magento 2, either locally or on a web server.
Once Magento 2 is up and running, follow this step-by-step procedure:
- Create and Register a New Magento 2 Module
- Setup Routing
- Controller Action
- Layout File
- The Block file
- Create the Template file
- Activate the Module
Create and Register a New Magento 2 Module
Create a new module with Namespace Cloudways and Module name Newmodule. Go to app/code/Cloudways/Newmodule and create a new registration.php file. Add the following code snippet to the file.
<?php \Magento\Framework\Component\ComponentRegistrar::register( Â Â Â \Magento\Framework\Component\ComponentRegistrar::MODULE, Â Â Â 'Cloudways_Newmodule', Â Â Â __DIR__ );
Next, the module needs to be declared.
For this, create a module.xml file in the app/code/Cloudways/Newmodule/etc and add the following code in it.
<?xml version="1.0"?> Â Â Â <config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:Module/etc/module.xsd"> Â Â Â <module name="Cloudways_Newmodule" setup_version="1.0.1"></module> </config>
Setup Routing
The module’s frontend routing information will be reported in routes.xml file. This file should be located in app/code/Cloudways/Newmodule/etc/frontend and have the following code.
<?xml version="1.0"?> <config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="../../../../../../lib/internal/Magento/Framework/App/etc/routes.xsd"> Â Â Â <router id="standard"> Â Â Â Â Â Â Â <route id="newmodule" frontName="newmodule"> Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â <module name="Cloudways_Newmodule" /> Â Â Â Â Â Â Â </route> Â Â Â </router> </config>
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Controller Action
Create the file Index.php file in app/code/Cloudways/Newmodule/Controller/Index. This will be the controller action and the execute() function in index.php will be invoked when the action is called.
<?php
namespace Cloudways\Newmodule\Controller\Index;
class Index extends \Magento\Framework\App\Action\Action
{
   /** @var \Magento\Framework\View\Result\Page */
   protected $resultPageFactory;
   /**     * @param \Magento\Framework\App\Action\Context $context     */
   public function __construct(\Magento\Framework\App\Action\Context $context, \Magento\Framework\View\Result\PageFactory $resultPageFactory)
   {
       $this->resultPageFactory = $resultPageFactory;
       parent::__construct($context);
   }
   /**
    * Blog Index, shows a list of recent blog posts.
    *
    * @return \Magento\Framework\View\Result\PageFactory
    */
   public function execute()
   {
       $resultPage = $this->resultPageFactory->create();
       $resultPage->getConfig()->getTitle()->prepend(__('Custom Front View'));
       return $resultPage;
   }
}
Layout File
Layout file in Magento 2 is different from Magento 1’s layout file. Magento 2 uses the layout file inside the module folder, and it is named after the structure of module. A common naming style is RouterName_ControllerName_ActionName.xml. So in this case, create the file newmodule_index_index.xml in app/code/Cloudways/Newmodule/view/frontend/layout directory. Add the following code to it
<?xml version="1.0"?> <page xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" layout="1column" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:View/Layout/etc/page_configuration.xsd"> Â Â Â <body> Â Â Â Â Â Â Â <referenceContainer name="content"> Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â <block class="Cloudways\Newmodule\Block\Newmodule" name="cloudways_newmodule" template="newmodule.phtml"></block> Â Â Â Â Â Â Â </referenceContainer> Â Â Â </body> </page>
The Block file
The next important step is the creation of the block file for the module. Block file includes several logical function(s) which will be used in the template file. Create a block file in app/code/Cloudways/Newmodule/Block and name it Newmodule.php. Add the following code to it
<?php
namespace Cloudways\Newmodule\Block;
class Newmodule extends \Magento\Framework\View\Element\Template
{
   public function _prepareLayout()
   {
       return parent::_prepareLayout();
   }
}
Create the Template file
The template file will be named newmodule.phtml and will be located in app/code/Cloudways/Newmodule/view/frontend/templates. Once done, add the following code.
<span style="font-weight: 400;">This is custom front view.</span>
Activate the Module
Finally, the module needs to be activated. Open up the SSH Terminal and in the root folder of Magento 2 (i.e. public_html), run the following commands.
rm -rf var/di var/generation var/cache/* var/log/* var/page_cache/* php bin/magento setup:upgrade php bin/magento setup:di:compile php bin/magento cache:clean php bin/magento cache:flush php bin/magento indexer:reindex
Congratulations! The Magento 2 custom frontend view has been successfully created. To test it out, run the URL in the following format.
http://yourdomain.com/RouterName/ControllerName/ActionName
In my case, the URL is http://magento-14846-54048-160729.cloudwaysapps.com/newmodule/index/index, and the result is following.
Conclusion
The above procedure is the shortest way of creating a custom frontend view in Magento 2. As you could see, Magento 2 offers a much easy way of creating a custom view. If you have a question or would like to contribute to the discussion, leave a comment below.
Abdur Rahman
Abdur Rahman is the Magento whizz at Cloudways. He is growth ambitious, and aims to learn & share information about Ecommerce & Magento Development through practice and experimentation. He loves to travel and explore new ideas whenever he finds time. Get in touch with him at [email protected]
