Is it possible to remove elements in a page layout in Magento2?

Question

When I read the documentation on page-layouts (http://devdocs.magento.com/guides/v2.0/frontend-dev-guide/layouts/layout-types.html#layout-types-page) I see that the following instructions in this XML document are allowed:

• <container>
• <referenceContainer>
• <move>
• <update>

Since <referenceBlock name="block.name" remove="true" /> isn't one of the allowed instructions how can I remove a certain element in a specific page layout?

What I want for the top-categories is a whole other page design. I don't need certain containers and blocks for this design. For these categories I only want to show child categories and not the products.

The thing I've done now is, added the following lines in my page layout: (in design\frontend\Vendor\Name-of-theme\Magento_Theme\page_layout\catalog-blocks.xml)

<move element="category.image" destination="delete"></move>
<move element="category.description" destination="delete"></move>
<move element="category.products" destination="delete"></move>
<move element="page.main.title" destination="delete"></move>

In the design\frontend\Vendor\Name-of-theme\Magento_Theme\layouts.xml I addded:

<layout id="catalog-blocks">
 <label translate="true">Catalog Blocks</label>
</layout>

I gave all the top-categories this catalog-blocks page layout in the admin.

Then in the main layout (design\frontend\Vendor\Name-of-theme\Magento_Theme\layout\default.xml) I added:

<referenceBlock name="delete" remove="true" />

So the whole delete block will be deleted, with all the things I moved here, in the page layout. This works well! It achieves exactly what I want but the whole thing seems to me a little hackish.

Is this considered being a good practice? If not, what would be a good alternative?

Edit 1: Changed the remove-tag in my question with the right one to avoid confusion.

Edit 2: Some more information about the files and file-locations.

Answer 1

What about:

• creating a new container (instead of a block)
• move your blocks to the container
• remove the container

Something like this:

<container name="delete" htmlTag="div" htmlClass="delete"/>
<move element="category.image" destination="delete"></move>
<move element="category.description" destination="delete"></move>
<move element="category.products" destination="delete"></move>
<move element="page.main.title" destination="delete"></move>
<referenceContainer name="delete" remove="true" />

• 11mb: Yes, that is exactly what I've done. My point is: this feels weird. Is this the only workaround? Why is it that Magento didn't build this feature into the page_layouts and is there a good reason for not being able to remove blocks?
• Raphael at Digital Pianism: @11mb it's slightly different than what you have done as in my post I'm creating and referencing a container in one single file (the page layout xml) whereas in your question you're using a block and several XML files. However that's a great question I'm not sure why Magento didn't build this feature in the page_layouts
• Raphael at Digital Pianism: @11mb feel free to create an issue on the Magento 2 GitHub repo to address that problem, it's definitely an interesting issue and I'm sure there's a good reason behind it
• 11mb: I see what you've have done here. I think it's a slightly better approach indeed. I will test it out and come back here.

Answer 2

This is the best practice for remove any block or container in magento 2. You can pass name attribute inside name in below element.

<referenceBlock name="block.name" remove="true" />

You can search inside magento 2 system, you have find many places syntax same as above.

Its magento recommendation way.If attribute remove="true" then add the element to list remove from that layout.

In magento 1 <remove> element is valid but in Magento 2 you have to set syntax same as above.

• 11mb: Thx! I think I have to rephrase the question a little. Is it possible to use <referenceBlock name="block.name" remove="true" /> (I was wrong about the remove tag) in a page-layout directly since referenceBlock isn't allowed either. I still should move an element to a 'delete-container' and then delete it in the main layout file. Which seems strange to me.
• Rakesh Jesadiya: referenceBlock is used when already block is defined with name. otherwise its not useful. ex. <block class="Magento\Framework\View\Element\Html\Links" name="top.links"> , in this case you can use <referenceBlock name="top.links" remove="true" />
• 11mb: I'm aware that the block should exist on beforehand. But in a page layout I can't use all the generic layout instructions as described here: devdocs.magento.com/guides/v2.0/frontend-dev-guide/layouts/…. (I edited my question), so I can't use referenceBlock
• Rakesh Jesadiya: in which page are you working for now and which element wnat to delelte?
• 11mb: I added some more information in the question. Thanks for your support!

Answer 3

The page layouts are only supposed to be used to create a wireframe/structure of the page and not for smaller modifications such as removing blocks.

To remove a block for only your new layout I think the best way is to create your own layout handle and make the modifications in there. For example you could create catalog_category_toplevel.xml that uses your new wireframe/layout and remove the blocks in there.

As this is more of a back-end task I don't feel comfortable enough to provide instructions for this sorry :( These two articles from Alan Storm may help you with this:

• http://alanstorm.com/magento_2_mvvm_mvc
• http://magento-quickies.alanstorm.com/post/141212337575/adding-custom-layout-handles-in-magento-2

TL:DR

If you wish to do this and follow best practice you need to create a new layout handle.