I have a basic layout (main.php) that holds everything and echo's $content. Depending on the action I may want to implement another layout into the $content section. Let's say something like this:
<div class="withSideMenu">
<div class="left">
... here should go the contents of $content
</div>
<div class="right">
<?php $this->widget('SideMenu'); ?>
</div>
</div>
I tried with beginContent() but had no success. Anyone can help?
I had a similar problem: a "sublayout" for each controller was needed, maybe my solution can help you:
In the main layout I do this:
<html>
...
<?php echo $this->renderPartial('_layout',array('content' => $content)); ?>
...
</html>
In the view folder you have a folder for each controller. In each controller folder you have a file _layout.php where you put your "sublayout":
<div class="withSideMenu">
<div class="left">
<?php echo $content; ?>
</div>
<div class="right">
<?php $this->widget('SideMenu'); ?>
</div>
</div>
For a more flexible solution you could introduce a new member variable in your controllers: public $sublayout = 'sublayout1';
In your main layout you could then do this:
<html>
...
<?php echo $this->renderPartial('/layouts/'.$this->sublayout,array('content' => $content)); ?>
...
</html>
Whenever you need to use a different sublayout, you then just set it in your action ($this->sublayout = 'sublayout2'). All your sublayouts would be in the layouts folder.
Thanks man that did the trick. I use the sublayout like this:
<?php echo (NULL === $this->subLayout) ? $content : $this->renderPartial('/layouts/' . $this->subLayout, array('content' => $content)); ?>
Yii rocks! 