Creating and Showing a static block in Magento Frontend

Static block is the great way to show up different types of data in your Magento webstore. This is the easiest way to display something on the frontend of your magento website.  The content of the blocks are created and modified from Magento Admin panel which can be placed on one or multiple pages. To create a static block you can follow some simple steps which are given bellow.

Creating a Static Block:

A. Go to the Magento Admin panel and then select the  CMS -> Static Blocks.

B. Then Click on the “Add New Block” button from the right top .

C. Now fillup the following fields:

1. Block Title: Give the Name of the static block here. This will not show on the frontend.
2. Identifier: Give the id of this block. It used as reference of this block, when adding to a template file or CMS page.
3. Status: Its define visibility of this static block on the frontend.
4. Content: Content of static block can be plain text, HTML code and Javascript. PHP code can’t use in this area.

D. After fillup all fields then click on “Save Block” button from the right top .

Showing a Static Block in Frontend:

A static block can be added to display on the frontend by some different ways which are discribed bellow:

1. Adding a static block to a CMS page From the Magento admin:

Go to CMS > Pages and click on a pre-existing page or create a new page where you want to show your static block.

Now use the following code in the Content field of the CMS page:

{{block type="cms/block" block_id="your_block_identifier" template="cms/content.phtml"}}

2. Adding a static block by using template phtml file:

Open your phtml file where you want to add the static block.

For Example: /app/design/frontend/your-instance-name/your_theme/template/callouts/right_col.phtml

Then you can use the following code in your phtml file to show the content of your ststic block:

<?php echo $this->getLayout()->createBlock('cms/block')->setBlockId('your_block_identifier')->toHtml() ?>

3. Adding a static block by using XML layout file:

Use the following code to show the content of static block by using Layout XML file:

<reference name="content/left/right">
   <block type="cms/block" name="your_block_name" before="-">
	<action ethod="setBlockId"><block_id>your_block_identifier</block_id></action>
  </block>
</reference>

Note: You can use the above code to show the block content in specific page by using “ Layout Update XML ” field of CMS page.

To do this go: CMS -> pages from your magento backend. Then click on on that page where you want to show the static block.

Then click on Design tab from left panel like:

Now Past the above code in Layout Update XML  field.
here i wrote <reference name=”content/left/right”> in code. You must use only one like- content / left or right as your reference name.