Add a new block to local.xml

Question

I'm kinda new to front-end magento, and this is probably asked alot, but I can't figure it out.

I'm trying to add a slider to my homepage, just below the header and just before the content starts.

I figured the best way to do this is by edditing local.xml (right?)

<cms_index_index>
  <reference name="root">
    <block type="core/template" name="slider" after="header" template="page/index/slider.phtml" before="-" />
  </reference>
</cms_index_index>

page/index/slider.phtml echo's a test, which unfortunately doesn't show up. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

In layout:

<cms_index_index>
    <reference name="content">
        <block type="core/template" name="slider" template="page/index/slider.phtml" before="-" />
    </reference>
</cms_index_index>

In Admin panel: CMS -> Pages, select your current home page and add

{{block type="core/template" template="page/index/slider.phtml"}}

In the beginning of the page.

Pay attention to <reference name="content">

Answer 2

You could use XML to place a block on the homepage above the content and below the header, and yes all XML edits should go into YOUR_PACKAGE/YOUR_THEME/layout/local.xml. Since you've created your own template path (YOUR_PACKAGE/YOUR_THEME/template/page/index/slider.phtml) and I assume that all the slider code is in that slider.phtml file you can also call that file directly in your CMS homepage.

Open the admin and go to CMS -> Pages. Click on the page that you want to add the slider to. Click on the Content tab and insert the following code:

{{block type="core/template" template="page/index/slider.phtml"}}

This is an easy way to call .phtml files from CMS pages or Static Blocks.