home page products list

[MBAngel]

I've been searching for 2 days trying to figure this out.  I'm not finding any documentation on how to list products on the home page, that explains this function.

I have this in my content space for my home page in the cms.  I know this is the home page because I can type stuff in and see it when I refresh. 

 {{block type="catalog/product_list" category_id="2" column_count="3" product_count="18" limit="18" template="catalog/product/list.phtml" }}

If I change the template to list-home.phtml it only shows 3 products, no matter what I try.  

I've seen and tried variations on the type from product_list to product_list_random and product_list_new.

(apparently I have no new products, lol)

I have Magento ver. 1.9.2.1

It doesn't seem to be paying attention to any of the details - category id, column count, product count, and limit.

I'd like to display 18 products, in 3 columns, from featured or new products.  (or even a specific category if I have to add them to a category to show them this way.)

I am not understanding the nuances here, and even if my variables are the right ones.  Am I using the right method?

[dametrics]

You need to leave the type and template alone. Alter the category_id, column_count, product_count, and limit.

Pick the category you want to show products from (or make a new one) and grab the ID from the Catalog->Manage Categories page. The ID will appear next to the title in parenthesis like this: Featured Products (ID: 3)

[MBAngel]

See, that's the problem.  The things you say not to change are the only ones that make anything change.  It's ignoring the category, count and limit, no matter how I spell it.  All products from all categories show, paginated in groups of 24 (I set this number in the product list settings.)

Am I using the wrong thing to do this?  I pasted that code into my home page content, in cms. 

{{block type="catalog/product_list_random" category_id="133" column_count="3" product_count="18" product_limit="18" count="18" limit="18" template="catalog/product/list.phtml" }}

[MrKhoa99]

Hello

I'm taking about Magento 1.

Magento is a complicated platform. I think we must spend more time on learning it. If you want to understand how Magento works, the best way is that you should look into Magento code lines.

 {{block type="catalog/product_list" category_id="2" column_count="3" product_count="18" limit="18" template="catalog/product/list.phtml" }}

-type="catalog/product_list" => It's catalog product list block, you can find app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Block/Product/List.php. In this file, you can see many methods: getLoadedProductCollection(), _getProductCollection(),setCategoryId(), getCategoryId(), etc. For example: when you set category_id = 2 => getCategoryId() will get your category id = 2. In your template, it will calls a function $this->getLoadedProductCollection() to get your some configurations xml.

Magento will ignore "wrong" config in xml layout, e.g: column_count, limit. => Actually, Magento doesn't have methods to process your "new" config elements. You can rewrite this block and add more methods to process them. 

[MBAngel]

Ok, none of this answered my question.  I've spent many hours in the meantime looking up solutions, trying them, failing, looking more, failing more...

this is my site http://ropes.courses.

I have 1 website, 5 stores, and 1 store view per store.

It ignores the category I've chosen.

It ignores the number of items to limit the display to.

I want each site to shown it's own products, but not all of the products in the store, just the products in it's own category.

each category I'm using is marked:

is active - yes

include in navigation - yes

is anchor - yes

The home page I've been fussing with is http://cheappower.tools/  (power tools in the top menu)

I added this code to the home page, design tab, "layout update XML" field.

<reference name="content">
<block type="catalog/product_list_random" name="featured" template="catalog/product/list-home.phtml">
<action method="setCategoryId"><category_id>175</category_id></action>
<action method="setItemLimit"><limit>18</limit></action>
</block>
</reference>

3 products show.... (175 is a child category for this store)

I tried changing it to this

<reference name="content">
<block type="catalog/product_list_random" name="random" template="catalog/product/list.phtml">
<action method="setCategoryId"><category_id>215</category_id></action>
<action method="setItemLimit"><limit>18</limit></action>
</block>
</reference>

3 products show... (215 is the main category for this store)

I can't find any guides about what variables work here. One discussion seems to indicate I need to change the code in the list page (by making one that won't get overwritten)

What other info can I post here so I could get an answer?  Am I missing some documentation on this somewhere?

[MBAngel]

Ok, so, it seems that if I pick a child category, and not a root category, it works as expected - the category I choose and the qty, 

If I choose one of my 5 root categories, it draws from the whole database.

I set my categories up like this

store 1

  child 1

  child 2

    child a1

    child a2

  child 3

store 2

  child 1

  child 2

    child a1

    child a2

  child 3

store 3

  child 1

  child 2

    child a1

    child a2

  child 3

Should they all be in one main root category, and each store then uses it's own sub category?

Also, when I go into catalog, products, there's a drop down for "store view" and all 5 stores have all the items in them.