Kdjykuj

The product grid of a category page (frontend) is rendered via layout in catalog_category_view.xml.

Lets say I have a custom product collection (which I got via

ProductRepositoryInterface::getList($searchCriteria) method

in a custom block class and want to render this collection. The rendered result should be displayed as a product grid on frontend (just like any category page).

How can this be done ?

By looking into catalog_category_view.xml there are two significant lines, which are responsible for rendering a product collection:

<block class="MagentoCatalogBlockCategoryView" name="category.products" template="Magento_Catalog::category/products.phtml">

<block class="MagentoCatalogBlockProductListProduct" name="category.products.list" as="product_list" template="Magento_Catalog::product/list.phtml">

How can I provide my custom product collection to these template files, so they render my collection ?

Correct me, if I am wrong on this.

This is how my block code looks like:

<?php

namespace ModMod1Block;

use MagentoFrameworkViewElementTemplate;

class Main extends Template

{

protected $_filterBuilder;

protected $_filterGroupArray;

protected $_filterGroupBuilder;

protected $_searchCriteriaBuilder;

protected $_productRepository;

protected $_productFactory;

protected $_list;



public function __construct(

    MagentoFrameworkViewElementTemplateContext $context,

    MagentoCatalogApiProductRepositoryInterface $productRepository,

    MagentoFrameworkApiSearchCriteriaBuilder $searchCriteriaBuilder,

    MagentoFrameworkApiSearchFilterGroupBuilder $filterGroupBuilder,

    MagentoFrameworkApiFilterBuilder $filterBuilder,

    MagentoCatalogModelProductFactory $productFactory,

    array $data = )

{

    $this->_productRepository = $productRepository;

    $this->_searchCriteriaBuilder = $searchCriteriaBuilder;

    $this->_filterGroupBuilder = $filterGroupBuilder;

    $this->_filterBuilder = $filterBuilder;

    parent::__construct($context, $data);

}



public function getLoadedProductCollection(){

    $searchCrit = $this->buildSearchCriteria('','','','','','5-',1);

    $list = $this->_productRepository->getList($searchCrit);

    return $list;

}

public function buildSearchCriteria(...){

....

return $searchCriteria;

}

}

You can try this:

Update your catalog_category_view.xml

<block class="MagentoCatalogBlockProductListProduct" name="category.products.list" as="product_list" template="Magento_Catalog::product/list.phtml">

<block class="Your(Mod)Namespace(Mod1)BlockYourBlockFileName(Main)" name="your.category.products.list" template="Magento_Catalog::product/yourFile.phtml" />

</block>

And call yourFile.phtml in product/list.phtml:

<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('your.category.products.list'); ?>

Now, you can use your function in yourfile.phtml like this:

$block->yourfunction();

Example:

$block->getLoadedProductCollection();

Hope this can help you.

The best approach would be:

Update your catalog_category_view.xml and replace MagentoCatalogBlockProductListProduct with ModMod1BlockMain

before:

<block class="MagentoCatalogBlockProductListProduct" name="category.products.list" as="product_list" template="Magento_Catalog::product/list.phtml">

after:

block class="ModMod1BlockMain" name="category.products.list" as="product_list" template="Magento_Catalog::product/list.phtml">

Your Main class MUST extend MagentoCatalogBlockProductListProduct

Then you will need to rewrite the method getLayer() to your own.

FYI: your class ModMod1BlockMain needs some refactoring.

Create your own new Layer class that will extend MagentoCatalogModelLayer and play around with the collections.

/**

 * Retrieve current layer product collection

 *

 * @return MagentoCatalogModelResourceModelProductCollection

 */

public function getProductCollection()

and

/**

 * Initialize product collection

 *

 * @param MagentoCatalogModelResourceModelProductCollection $collection

 * @return MagentoCatalogModelLayer

 */

public function prepareProductCollection($collection)

Basically initially you want to create a controller or even a basic CMS page so you have a page to show your collection.

From there you can use your custom block which creates your collection combined with the list.phtml template file to render the products on your page.

{{block class="VendorModuleBlockProductCollection" template="Magento_Catalog::product/list.phtml" name="specialproducts"}} 

Add above xml where VendorModuleBlockProductCollection is the custom block code where your collection is created to xml for that page.

The list.phtml file gathers the collection from your block with below line of code:

$_productCollection = $block->getLoadedProductCollection();

So long as your block has the getLoadedProductCollection() function returning your collection of products the list.phtml file will then loop through each product in your collection rendering them in a default Magento product grid.

For your block code try updating below line to include getItems():

$list = $this->_productRepository->getList($searchCrit)->getItems();

You can render product collection in your phtml file like this

$product_collection = $block->getLoadedProductCollection();