Magento 2 widget doesn't show - how to debug?

Question

I have a module that is installed in other sites. In one site it doesn't show up when inserted into CMS Pages.

{{widget type="Company\Modulename\Block\Widget\Test" template="widget/newsletter/test.phtml"}}

app/code/Company/Modulename/Block/Widget/Test.php:

namespace Company\Modulename\Block\Widget; 
class Test extends \Magento\Framework\View\Element\Template implements \Magento\Widget\Block\BlockInterface
{ 
 protected function _construct()
 {
 parent::_construct();
 } 
}

app/code/Company/Modulename/view/frontend/templates/widget/newsletter/test.phtml:

<?php
echo 1;

app/code/Company/Modulename/etc/widget.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<widgets xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:module:Magento_Widget:etc/widget.xsd">
 <widget id="test" class="Company\Modulename\Block\Widget\Buttons">
 <label translate="true">some text</label>
 <description>some text</description>
 <parameters>
 ...

It will show just empty string, no matter what I try. I enabled developer mode but no info about that is inside system.log. Any idea what could be wrong or at least how I can debug this problem?

• Miroslav Petroff: do you have etc/widget.xml in your module with declaration of your widget?
• user1324762: Yes I have. It works in other stores, but in this one it won't without any error inside system.log, it will just show empty string where widget should appear in frontend.

Answer 1

Not necessary an answer, but I resolved the problem. The code was obfuscated. Once I uploaded code without obfuscation it started to work. I am not sure why only on this environment, it worked properly exact the same code in two other sites. I guess there were some errors masked by server.

What I tried is to copy/paste sample widget code from other extension, renamed class names, removed all unnecessary part of code so it was left only echo 'test'; inside phtml and only class declaration and class inherit statements. Then I put back line by line. I realized it stopped working just at the last step when I tried to use obfuscated code.

Answer 2

Your widgets should be defined in etc/widget.xml and then you can insert them with the WYSIWYG editor from the "insert widget" button or create new widget from Content -> Widgets in admin.

app/code/Company/Modulename/etc/widget.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<widgets xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:module:Magento_Widget:etc/widget.xsd">
 <widget id="company_widget_test" class="Company\Modulename\Block\Widget\Test">
 <label translate="true">Test widget</label>
 <description translate="true"></description>
 <parameters>
 <parameter name="title" xsi:type="text" visible="true" sort_order="10">
 <label translate="true">Title</label>
 </parameter>
 </parameters>
</widget>

You can add many parameters to your widget even define template filename. Examples: vendor/magento/module-catalog/etc/widget.xml and any other widget.xml in other Magento modules

Other way to set template filename to the widget

app/code/Company/Modulename/Block/Widget/Test.php:

namespace Company\Modulename\Block\Widget; 
class Test extends \Magento\Framework\View\Element\Template implements \Magento\Widget\Block\BlockInterface
{ 
 public function __construct(
 \Magento\Framework\View\Element\Template\Context $context,
 array $data = []
 ) {
 $this->setTemplate('widget/newsletter/test.phtml');
 parent::__construct($context, $data);
 } 
}

• user1324762: widget.xml is already there, I didn't wrote that because this is obviously. It works in other stores, but in this one it won't and before I go into deep researching of core code I wanted to ask if anybody have any idea what could be the reason, if there can be some permission problem or anything.
• Miroslav Petroff: can you find the widget in visual editor or you are adding it with the code manually? Or can you create new instance of the widget from Content -> Widgets?
• user1324762: Yes I find the widget in visual editor, I am also able to create new instance of the widget.
• Miroslav Petroff: Can you try to set the template with Company_Modulename::widget/newsletter/test.phtml on CMS page and on widget.xml as parameter
• user1324762: Still no luck. It is weird that it won't show any error inside system.log.