updating a widget using AJAX

Question

I am adding a widget to a CMS page. Within this widget will be some ajax calls -- however, i'm unsure what / how I should call this layout block in the controller to update the frontend code.

The widget is located here:

magento/app/design/frontend/enterprise/default/template/catalog/product/widget/new/content/new_grid.phtml

In the CMS page I can calling the widget as such:

{widget type="catalog/product_widget_new" display_type="new_products" show_pager="1" products_per_page="20" products_count="1000" template="catalog/product/widget/new/content/new_grid.phtml"}

The ajax calling function will look something like:

newPerPage = function (value) {
 try {
 jQuery.ajax({
 url: url,
 dataType: 'json',
 type: 'post',
 data: value,
 success: function (data) {
 jQuery('#product-grid-category').html(data.field);
 }
 });
 } catch (e) {
 }
};

The ajax conotroller function will look something like:

public function newPagerAction(){
 $this->setData('products_per_page', param);
 $response = array();
 $response['field'] = $this->getLayout()->createBlock('....')->setTemplate('....')->toHtml();
 $this->getResponse()->setBody(Mage::helper('core')->jsonEncode($response));
}

Answer 1

Try this in your controller:

public function couponPostAction()
{
 if (!$this->getRequest()->isAjax()) {
 $this->_forward('noRoute');
 return;
 }
 $block = $this->getLayout()->createBlock('catalog/product_widget_new', 'product.widget.new', array(
 'show_pager' => 1,
 'products_per_page' => 24,
 'products_count' => 1000,
 'display_type' => 'new_products',
 'template' => 'catalog/product/widget/new/content/new_grid.phtml'
 ));
 $this->getResponse()->setBody(
 Mage::helper('core')->jsonEncode(array(
 'field' => $block->toHtml()
 ))
 );
}

• easymoden00b: I assume you mean instead of '24' I will use the data passed to the controller, right? Thank you regardless. This is essentially exactly what I needed.
• Lord Skeletor: Yes, you can pass data in ajax call and fetch it with $this->getRequest()->getParam('someparam');
• easymoden00b: Any idea of an appropriate place to put this controller? Or should I just make a new module?
• Lord Skeletor: You should place it in the controllers folder inside either new or existing custom module and adjust url var in your javascript accordingly.