How to quickly override/modify core block file?

Question

I need to modify 1 line of code in:

  Mage/Catalog/Search/Block/Autocomplete.php

$html .=  '<li title="'.$this->escapeHtml($item['title']).'" class="'.$item['row_class'].'">'
            . '<span class="amount">'.$item['num_of_results'].'</span>'.$this->escapeHtml($item['title']).'</li>'; 

What would be the best approach to do this? Do I need to override the whole controller(Mage/Catalog/Search/controllers/AjaxController.php) that calls this block or is there any simpler way?

It seems to me that creating a module just to override one line is not right.

Thanks :).

Answer 1

You need to override this block in the local

Step 1: create Yourpackagename_CatalogSearch.xml under app/etc/modules

<?xml version="1.0" ?> 
<config>
    <modules>
        <Yourpackagename_CatalogSearch>
            <active>true</active> 
            <codePool>local</codePool> 
        </Yourpackagename_CatalogSearch>
    </modules>
</config>

Step 2: Now create Yourpackage folder under app/code/local/ and create CatalogSearch folder under Yourpackage.now create etc/config.xml folder under app/code/local/etc/config.xml

<?xml version="1.0" ?> 
  <config>
    <modules>
      <Yourpackagename_CatalogSearch>
        <version>0.0.1</version> 
      </Yourpackagename_CatalogSearch>
    </modules>
    <global>
      <blocks>
        <catalogsearch>
          <rewrite>
            <autocomplete>Yourpackage_CatalogSearch_Block_Autocomplete</autocomplete>
          </rewrite>
        </catalogsearch>
      </blocks>
    </global>
  </config>

Step 3: Now create Autocomplete.php under the app/code/local/Yourpackage/CatalogSearch/Block/ with the following code

<?php
    class Yourpackage_CatalogSearch_Block_Autocomplete extends Mage_CatalogSearch_Block_Autocomplete
    {
        protected function _toHtml(){
            // u can add ur code changes here
        }
    }