Add another Admin Grid View from same block instances

Question

I currently have an admin grid view per file structure/code as below;

Block/Adminhtml/Things.php

public function __construct()
{
 $this->_controller = 'adminhtml_things';
 $this->_blockGroup = 'things';
 $this->_headerText = Mage::helper('things')->__('Things Grid');
 $this->_addButtonLabel = Mage::helper('things')->__('Create Enhanced News Item');
 parent::__construct();
}

Block/Adminhtml/Things/Grid.php

public function __construct()
{
 //... (Sorts etc)
 $this->setSaveParametersInSession(true);
}
protected function _prepareCollection()
{
 $collection = Mage::getModel('things/things')->getCollection();
 //Use this in another Grid to filter
 //$collection->addFieldToFilter('customer_id', array('notnull' => true));
 $this->setCollection($collection);
 return parent::_prepareCollection();
}
protected function _prepareColumns()
{
 //... (columns)
 return parent::_prepareColumns();
}

controllers/Adminhtml/Things/ThingsController.php

public function indexAction() {
 $this->loadLayout();
 $this->renderLayout();
}
public function gridAction() {
 $this->loadLayout();
 $this->getResponse()->setBody($this->getLayout()->createBlock('things/adminhtml_things_grid')->toHtml());
}

layout/things/things.xml

<adminhtml_things_things_index>
 <reference name="content">
 <block type="things/adminhtml_things" name="things" />
 </reference>
</adminhtml_things_things_index>

and all works fine and I have a populated Grid view via adminurl/things_things/index (grid view)

but how do create another Grid View with filtered collection? Do I;

1. Copy all the Block & controller files and rename/refactor the namespace (ie Things2) and add the view into the xml layout file or;
2. Add another view action inside the ThingsController.php & xml layout file as well as creating another Grid block File with the collection filter ie Block/Adminhtml/Things/Grid2.php

• BENN1TH: I have tried to copy the files and change "things" to "things2" but I get the Fatal error: Call to a member function setSaveParametersInSession() on a non-object error

Answer 1

Used option 1 and refactored/renamed copied files of all the "things" & "Things" namings to "otherthings" & "Otherthings"..

But in the copied & renamed file Block/Adminhtml/Otherthings/Grid.php

I have not changed the _blockgroup

 $this->_blockGroup = 'things';//kept module name and not changed to "otherthings" naming

as this stopped the error that i explained in the comments i was getting and successfully got a new filtered collection grid view on a new backend url..

Plus..

As I only wanted to copied the Grid Files (and not the complete edit view & tab view files as not really wanting to edit two groups of file sets when file edts/improvents are needed) i needed the edit link in the grid view to point back to the original edit page url (ie adminurl/things_things/edit/id/13/key/3449574385634857) if not, I would get a 404, i changed the code in the edit column inside the copied grid file as per below;

//new copied file
Block/Adminhtml/Otherthings/Grid.php
//Edit Link Column point back to original edit url
$this->addColumn('action', array(
 'header' => Mage::helper('things')->__('Edit Item'),
 'width' => '100',
 'type' => 'action',
 'getter' => 'getId',
 'actions' => array(
 array(
 'caption' => Mage::helper('things')->__('Edit'),
 'url' => array(
 //point back to original edit URL
 'base' => '*/things_things/edit'
 ),
 'field' => 'id'
 )
 ),
 'filter' => false,
 'sortable' => false,
 'index' => 'stores',
 'is_system' => true
 ));