Magento : Moving "Recently Viewed" to product page creates weird caching error

Question

So we have put the "recently viewed" block into our product view. Everything seems to look fine at first but I'm now seeing weird errors that have to do with null layouts. If i turn caching off it works fine, but with full page caching enabled it fails when calling $this->getColumnCount(); in the template.

What I have done to enable recently viewed on the product page was:

in catalog.xml inside the content block of catalog_product_view:

            <block type="reports/product_viewed" name="reports.product.viewed" as="recently_viewed" template="reports/product_viewed.phtml">
                <action method="setColumnCount"><columns>4</columns></action>
                <action method="setItemLimit"><type>recently_viewed</type><limit>4</limit></action>
            </block>

in the template file: catalog/product/view.phtml:

             <?php echo $this->getChildHtml('recently_viewed') ?>

everything loads fine the first time, but then if i click on another product view, then reload the page it errors out. I traced the error down to the class: Mage_Page_Helper_Layout.

the function getCurrentPageLayout(), has a line:

 $this->getLayout()->getBlock('root')

and $this->getLayout is returning null which causes the getBlock call to throw an exception.
if i disabled caching no errors come up and everything works fine.

Answer 1

Which version are you running ? As far as I known, Magento Enterprise 1.9 have serious problems with Full Page Caching. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Answer 2

Have you just disabled caching in admin or actually deleted /var/cache? Magento might use old cached pages when you enable it again causing errors. There is button for flushing caches in cache management or you can do it manually.

Answer 3

I have just applied your changes to a stock installation of Magento EE 1.9.1 and I can't experience the error you reported.

The block is correctly updated with as long as I visit my catalog and it doesn't trigger any exceptions when I refresh the page multiple times.

Answer 4

Take this patch from Varien for 1.9.1.1 and it will work:

    Index: app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Catalognavigation.php
===================================================================
--- app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Catalognavigation.php    (revision 87812)
+++ app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Catalognavigation.php    (working copy)
@@ -133,6 +133,7 @@
             $category = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->load($categoryId);
             Mage::register('current_category', $category);
         }
+        $block->setLayout(Mage::app()->getLayout());

         return $block->toHtml();
     }
Index: app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Accountlinks.php
===================================================================
--- app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Accountlinks.php (revision 87812)
+++ app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Accountlinks.php (working copy)
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@
                     $linkInfo['li_params'], $linkInfo['a_params'], $linkInfo['before_text'], $linkInfo['after_text']);
             }
         }
+        $block->setLayout(Mage::app()->getLayout());

         return $block->toHtml();
     }
Index: app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Orders.php
===================================================================
--- app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Orders.php   (revision 87812)
+++ app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Orders.php   (working copy)
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@

         $block = new $block;
         $block->setTemplate($template);
+        $block->setLayout(Mage::app()->getLayout());

         return $block->toHtml();
     }
Index: app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Sidebar/Recentlycompared.php
===================================================================
--- app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Sidebar/Recentlycompared.php (revision 87812)
+++ app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Sidebar/Recentlycompared.php (working copy)
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@

         $block = new $block;
         $block->setTemplate($template);
+        $block->setLayout(Mage::app()->getLayout());

         return $block->toHtml();
     }
Index: app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Sidebar/Comparelist.php
===================================================================
--- app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Sidebar/Comparelist.php  (revision 87812)
+++ app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Sidebar/Comparelist.php  (working copy)
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@

         $block = Mage::app()->getLayout()->createBlock('catalog/product_compare_list');
         $block->setTemplate($template);
+        $block->setLayout(Mage::app()->getLayout());

         return $block->toHtml();
     }
Index: app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Messages.php
===================================================================
--- app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Messages.php (revision 87812)
+++ app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Messages.php (working copy)
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@
         foreach ($this->_messageStoreTypes as $type) {
             $this->_addMessagesToBlock($type, $block);
         }
+        $block->setLayout(Mage::app()->getLayout());

         return $block->toHtml();
     }
Index: app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Viewedproducts.php
===================================================================
--- app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Viewedproducts.php   (revision 87812)
+++ app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Viewedproducts.php   (working copy)
@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@
         $block = new $block;
         $block->setTemplate($template);
         $block->setProductIds($productIds);
+        $block->setLayout(Mage::app()->getLayout());

         return $block->toHtml();
     }
Index: app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Wishlistlinks.php
===================================================================
--- app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Wishlistlinks.php    (revision 87812)
+++ app/code/core/Enterprise/PageCache/Model/Container/Wishlistlinks.php    (working copy)
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@
     {
         $block = $this->_placeholder->getAttribute('block');
         $block = new $block;
+        $block->setLayout(Mage::app()->getLayout());
         return $block->toHtml();
     }
 }