Remove a block from layout without a name

Question

I want to remove a block from the layout in magento 2 that is declared in a third party extension, but the block does not have a name.
Can I do that?

The block is declared like this

<referenceContainer name="before.body.end">
 <block class="Magento\Backend\Block\Template" template="[Vendor_Module]::template.phtml"/>
</referenceContainer>

I cannot use

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

because, as you can see there is no name on it.

• Amit Bera: marius, i have idea.if we using event and remove block by match template name [Vendor_Module]::template.phtml
• Marius: I have the same idea (see comments on the answer) but I will use it only as a desperate measure. I was hoping for a simple solution. If you have some code, post it as an answer.
• Amit Bera: ha ha that we donot have simple solution.let me try give u an answer using event

Answer 1

I found this issue in class Magento\Framework\View\Layout\ScheduledStructure\Helper

There is function _generateAnonymousName:

protected function _generateAnonymousName($class)
{
 $position = strpos($class, '\\Block\\');
 $key = $position !== false ? substr($class, $position + 7) : $class;
 $key = strtolower(trim($key, '_'));
 return $key . $this->counter++;
}

It's call from scheduleStructure function:

 public function scheduleStructure(
 Layout\ScheduledStructure $scheduledStructure,
 Layout\Element $currentNode,
 Layout\Element $parentNode
) {
 // if it hasn't a name it must be generated
 if (!(string)$currentNode->getAttribute('name')) {
 $name = $this->_generateAnonymousName($parentNode->getElementName() . '_schedule_block'); // CALL HERE
 $currentNode->setAttribute('name', $name);
 }
 $path = $name = (string)$currentNode->getAttribute('name');
 // Prepare scheduled element with default parameters [type, alias, parentName, siblingName, isAfter]
 $row = [
 self::SCHEDULED_STRUCTURE_INDEX_TYPE => $currentNode->getName(),
 self::SCHEDULED_STRUCTURE_INDEX_ALIAS => '',
 self::SCHEDULED_STRUCTURE_INDEX_PARENT_NAME => '',
 self::SCHEDULED_STRUCTURE_INDEX_SIBLING_NAME => null,
 self::SCHEDULED_STRUCTURE_INDEX_IS_AFTER => true,
 ];
 $parentName = $parentNode->getElementName();
 //if this element has a parent element, there must be reset [alias, parentName, siblingName, isAfter]
 if ($parentName) {
 $row[self::SCHEDULED_STRUCTURE_INDEX_ALIAS] = (string)$currentNode->getAttribute('as');
 $row[self::SCHEDULED_STRUCTURE_INDEX_PARENT_NAME] = $parentName;
 list($row[self::SCHEDULED_STRUCTURE_INDEX_SIBLING_NAME],
 $row[self::SCHEDULED_STRUCTURE_INDEX_IS_AFTER]) = $this->_beforeAfterToSibling($currentNode);
 // materialized path for referencing nodes in the plain array of _scheduledStructure
 if ($scheduledStructure->hasPath($parentName)) {
 $path = $scheduledStructure->getPath($parentName) . '/' . $path;
 }
 }
 $this->_overrideElementWorkaround($scheduledStructure, $name, $path);
 $scheduledStructure->setPathElement($name, $path);
 $scheduledStructure->setStructureElement($name, $row);
 return $name;
}

With this case, Block name can be:

• before.body.end_schedule_block1
• before.body.end_schedule_block2
• ...

I think you should define totals block without the name on container and order block name need remove on the container.

• Marius: I don't think this will work. There is no way to predict the generated name since on different pages there can be multiple blocks added in the body.before.end container in different order.
• LinoPham: This case only applies to block/container without a name. If all of them without the name, so difficult to define some block/container need removed.
• Marius: yep...my problem exactly
• LinoPham: We should rewrite $name = $this->_generateAnonymousName($parentNode->getElementName() . '_schedule_block'); , Should be pass class & template to parameter ?
• Marius: seems like an overhead to rewrite something like that. I'm looking for a simple solution (if any) or an answer like 'not possible very easily'. I think I can observe the layout generate blocks event or something to remove it there, but again seems too much overhead. I'm keeping that as a backup solution.

Answer 2

I got an idea from Amit's answer and ended up with a working solution that does not look very intrusive and it's not an overkill since my code is executed only once.

I've created an observer on the event layout_generate_blocks_after that is executed after the layouts are loaded and the blocks are generated.

This can have a drawback because the block I'm trying to remove still gets instantiated, but in my case I just needed to remove it from the page.

So I have the file etc/adminhtml/events.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:Event/etc/events.xsd">
 <event name="layout_generate_blocks_after">
 <observer name="remove-the-block" instance="[MyVendor]\[MyModule]\Observer\RemoveBlock" />
 </event>
</config>

and my observer class:

<?php
namespace [MyVendor]\[MyModule]\Observer;
use Magento\Framework\Event\Observer;
use Magento\Framework\Event\ObserverInterface;
class RemoveBlock implements ObserverInterface
{
 const TEMPLATE_TO_REMOVE = '[OtherVendor]_[OtherModule]::template.phtml';
 public function execute(Observer $observer)
 {
 /** @var \Magento\Framework\View\Layout $layout */
 $layout = $observer->getLayout();
 $blocks = $layout->getAllBlocks();
 foreach ($blocks as $key => $block) {
 /** @var \Magento\Framework\View\Element\Template $block */
 if ($block->getTemplate() == self::TEMPLATE_TO_REMOVE) {
 $layout->unsetElement($key);
 }
 }
 }
}

Answer 3

I am really give u bad idea.

Here the idea is not stop output of your block

Using event view_block_abstract_to_html_after

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:Event/etc/events.xsd">
 <event name="view_block_abstract_to_html_after">
 <observer name="myObserverName" instance="Stack\Work\Observer\MyObserver" />
 </event>
</config>

And using this observer disable output of your block

<?php
namespace Stack\Work\Observer;
use Magento\Framework\Event\ObserverInterface;
class MyObserver implements ObserverInterface
{
 public function __construct()
 {
 //Observer initialization code...
 //You can use dependency injection to get any class this observer may need.
 }
 public function execute(\Magento\Framework\Event\Observer $observer)
 {
 $block = $observer->getData('block');
 if('[Vendor_Module]::template.phtml' == $block->getTemplate()){
 $transport = $observer->getData('transport');
 $transport->setHtml('');
 }
 }
}

• Marius: this is not actually such a bad idea. Indeed there is an overkill observing all the blocks, but I'm willing to use it over other options. I will try and let you know.
• Amit Bera: coool. man.... see what happen
• Marius: It works, but I tried to optimize it a bit, not to execute the code for every block. So I ended up with my answer. Thanks for the idea.
• Amit Bera: I see answer, that really good man :)