Controller to Ajax Estimate Shipping - Load Block and display phtml

Question

I copied estimatePostAction and made estimateAjaxPostAction (overrided core - i did not hack the core). The controller action works as well (class Mage_Checkout_CartController).

Now I want to get/create a block for replace shipping block after estimate shipping with ajax. I tried this:

public function estimateAjaxPostAction()
{
 $country = (string) $this->getRequest()->getParam('country_id');
 $postcode = (string) $this->getRequest()->getParam('estimate_postcode');
 $city = (string) $this->getRequest()->getParam('estimate_city');
 $regionId = (string) $this->getRequest()->getParam('region_id');
 $region = (string) $this->getRequest()->getParam('region');
 $this->_getQuote()->getShippingAddress()
 ->setCountryId($country)
 ->setCity($city)
 ->setPostcode($postcode)
 ->setRegionId($regionId)
 ->setRegion($region)
 ->setCollectShippingRates(true);
 $this->_getQuote()->save();
 //$this->_goBack();
 $this->loadLayout();
 $block = $this->getLayout()->createBlock('Mage_Checkout_Block_Cart_Shipping','checkout.cart.shipping.ajax',array('template' => 'checkout/cart/shipping.phtml'));
 if($block) {
 $response = array();
 $response['shipping'] = $block->toHtml();
 $this->getResponse()->setBody(Mage::helper('core')->jsonEncode($response));
 }
}

The block checkout.cart.shipping.ajax was created. But toHtml() returns nothing. My json returns: {"shipping":""}

Why toHtml method doesn't work?

• thindery: did you ever figure this out?
• Denis Spalenza: Answered at StackOverflow by Amit Bera: stackoverflow.com/questions/21601634/…

Answer 1

Try

....
$loadLayout = $this->loadLayout();
$block = $loadLayout->createBlock(
 'checkout/cart_shipping',
 'checkout.cart.shipping.ajax'
)->setTemplate('checkout/cart/shipping.phtml');
if($block) {
 $response = array();
 $response['shipping'] = $block->toHtml();
 $this->getResponse()->setBody(Mage::helper('core')->jsonEncode($response));
}
....

• Baby in Magento: oh, you wrote description for your name, awesome boss.....