Here are some methods of creating block by code in Magento. This type of code can be used directly in template, not need to create a layout file or add a child node inside already existing layout file. You can use this to echo a different type of block inside already loading block and template. [source language=”php”] // Directly in the PHTML where you want to show the block getLayout()->createBlock(“module/block”)->setTemplate(“module/page.phtml”)->toHtml(); ?> [/source] What we have actually done is just load the layout and create an instance of a block class defined inside its paramerter, then assigned a template to the block and finally echoed as html. Simple! The code above will be equivalent to what we do as following in layout and in template file. [source language=’xml’] // In layout [/source] [source language=”php”] getChildHtml(“module.name”); ?> [/source] May be helpful!