Display Promotion & Random Products in Magento

By: Ivan Weiler, Last updated: Jan 08, 2011 | Published: Aug 25, 2009

There are two unused product list blocks in Magento which can be very useful if you push a few buttons, edit few layouts ..

1. Promotion
Block located in app\code\core\Mage\Catalog\Block\Product\List\Promotion.php

This is basically built in featured product functionality. It reacts to “promotion” attribute which needs to be created, so let’s click
Catalog->Attributes->Manage Attributes->Create New Attribute

Attribute Code: promotion
Scope: Global
Catalog Input Type for Store Owner: Yes/No

Label: Promotion (second tab)

Other params can be left alone, but it’s up to you of course. I also labeled it Promotion just for this article.

Now we need to add created attribute to attribute set, so navigate to
Catalog->Attributes->Manage Attribute Sets
select attribute set you’re using and drag promotion to General group for example.

Now when you’re editing your products, there is new “Promotion” option under General tab.

Products on which you select Yes will be shown on promotion block which can be displayed through layouts with

or as cms content with

{{block type='catalog/product_list_promotion' template='catalog/product/list.phtml'}}

This attribute should really be included in default attribute set or in Magento sample data.

2. Random
Block located in app\code\core\Mage\Catalog\Block\Product\List\Random.php

This block loads random product collection from current store.

The fastest way to display it would also be something like

since it also extends product_list block, however, since it is random product listing, that toolbar has no purpose here, so create phtml that will suit your shop needs, based on catalog/product/list.phtml. For example, i’m using similar Random block to display random products in sidebar.

So long, take care, i’m off …

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69 comments

Jeeva says:
May 29, 2018 at 8:38
How can i display my single Recent Blog post on selected category landing page left side.
Reply
Lasmega says:
Jun 25, 2016 at 7:31
I work with magento 1.7.0.2 and random products in my home.
Thanks
Reply
Chris says:
Sep 28, 2014 at 10:52
Fatal error: Call to a member function getBackend() on a non-object in
Reply
Mr Fieldz says:
Sep 02, 2013 at 23:18
i got this error, any ideas?
Fatal error: Call to a member function getSource() on a non-object in /home/camposne/public_html/demo/app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Model/Product.php on line 1389
Reply
Shivam says:
Jul 31, 2013 at 8:53
hello,
I use magento 1.7.0.2
i want to display random products in catalog page of a category.
please help
Reply

oops, here is the code:

<action method="setProductsCount"><count>3</count></action>

Liz says:
Jul 31, 2013 at 1:25
Hi Ivan,
This is really helpful. I have added a block that lists random products. I have tried to limit the number of products displaying in this list to 3 using the line below but it doesnt work. Any ideas?
3
Thanks again.
Reply
Daiana says:
May 25, 2013 at 15:05
Hello
I work with magento 1.7.0.2 and random products in my home.
I need help placing 4 columns in the products randon.
Any tips?
Reply
Michel says:
Dec 08, 2012 at 10:35
I coming back because I’ve succed to show Random Product from my catgory but not on my selected promotion product. I’d like to show Random Product from my selected promotion from my catégory:-) product_list_promotion or product_list_random but together that doesnt work. An tips for that?
Reply
Michel says:
Dec 07, 2012 at 18:45
Thanks for the blog – I have a problem with Random. When I select “No” the product is always showed on my homepage. I know why!
My question is, how does it possible to show Random Product only selected with my attribute ?
Thanks for helping us
Reply
Gaurav says:
Oct 25, 2012 at 7:42
Hi,
Nice clue to show Random products into home page, As i do the same and it works great! thanks for tip.
Here, My question is, Why it didn’t show the pagination? It seems it used “list.phtml” to show all the products but here pagination (first page, next,last page) is missing.
And tips for that?
thanks
Reply
bruno says:
May 18, 2012 at 12:41
hi,
and for the new produts how i display them randomly??
Reply
Peterjan says:
Apr 17, 2012 at 14:05
Hi, promotion products is working fine but…
I have 4 stores and would love to show promotion products for each store specific. Right now its showing all products with the promotion atribute.
Can someone tell me how to do that?
Thanks
Reply

Thank you for the blog!
Probably following code will help someone to show products randomly from a particular category:

We need to write code for home cms like:
{{block type=”catalog/product_list” category_id=”50″ template=”catalog/product/list_home.phtml”}}

Code:

<?php
$_productCollection=$this->getLoadedProductCollection();
$categoryID = $this->category_id;
//$categoryID = $this->getCategoryId();
if($categoryID){
  $category = new Mage_Catalog_Model_Category();
  $category->load($categoryID); // this is category id
  $collection = $category->getProductCollection();
} else{
  $collection = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/product_collection');
}
Mage::getModel('catalog/layer')->prepareProductCollection($collection);
$collection->getSelect()->order('rand()');
$collection->addStoreFilter();
$numProducts = $this->getNumProducts() ? $this->getNumProducts() : 1;
$collection->setPage(1, $numProducts)->load();
$_productCollection = $this->_productCollection = $collection;
?>
<?php if(!$_productCollection->count()): ?>
<div class="note-msg">
    <?php echo $this->__('There are no products matching the selection. Please provide a category ID.') ?>
</div>
<?php else: ?>
  <ul>
	<?php $_collectionSize = $_productCollection->count() ?>
    <?php foreach ($_productCollection as $_product): ?>		        
		<li>
        <a href="<?php echo $_product->getProductUrl() ?>" title="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_product->getName()) ?>">
            <img src="<?php echo $this->helper('catalog/image')->init($_product, 'small_image')->resize(105, 105); ?>" width="105" height="105" alt="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_product->getName()) ?>" />
        </a>
		</li>
    <?php endforeach ?>
</ul>
<?php endif; ?>

This code displays a single product.

alcs00 says:
Dec 15, 2011 at 12:20
@Shashank
catalog.xml
-Category default layout
u can create a new list.phtml and make it show only 10 products
as for the category use “category_id=””
Reply
Shashank says:
Dec 05, 2011 at 10:46
Am a regular reader of your blog but am commenting for the 1st time..I want to add 10 random products from a specific category lets say “Popular” below my main product on the product view page..am struggling for the last three days…any help wud be greatly appreciated…am using latest Magento lite version that u released as an experiment before 🙂
Reply
imran says:
Jul 15, 2011 at 12:48
Hi! I want to set a promotional offer for customer’s depending on there “Date of Birth’s” how can i do that & in my magento its not displaying any of the condition with respect to the Customer. please help me for doing this……
Reply
David says:
Jul 06, 2011 at 13:50
Emilio, in 1.5 you should put this
34
in Design / XML Layout
Reply
emilio says:
Jun 20, 2011 at 20:19
I use magento 1.5. and I want to show random products on home page. Could you please tell where on the home page information I have to put the code? on the “Custom Layout Update XML” or on the end of “Layout Update XML”?
Best regards
Reply

You made it all the way down here so you must have enjoyed this post! You may also like:

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