title: Opencart add additional tpl layout for a category
body: <p>I am trying to setup additional page and category layouts in Opencart 1.5.4.</p>
  
  <p>I have got to a stage where if I enter the route of the new category into the address bar, the new template shows as I want, but I don't seem to be able to register that route change in OC.</p>
  
  <p>If I specify the change in the .htaccess file the new template loads as expected, but I don't this is the right answer to the problem (although it works).</p>
  
  <p>Addition to .htaccess (not correct method I'm sure)</p>
  
  <pre><code>RewriteRule ^skis$ index.php?route=product/categories&amp;path=1  [L,QSA]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I have created two new files</p>
  
  <pre><code>/catalog/view/theme/default/template/product/categories.tpl
  /catalog/controller/product/categories.php
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In /catalog/controller/product/categories.php, I have changed the content to reflect new tpl file;</p>
  
  <pre><code>class Controllerproductcategories extends Controller {
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>.</p>
  
  <pre><code>if (file_exists(DIR_TEMPLATE . $this-&gt;config-&gt;get('config_template') . '/template/product/categories.tpl')) {
   $this-&gt;template = $this-&gt;config-&gt;get('config_template') . '/template/product/categories.tpl';
  } else {
   $this-&gt;template = 'default/template/product/categories.tpl';
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>So in summary</strong> </p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>If I specify the rewrite in the .htaccess file the layout loads, if I don't it doesn't.</li>
  <li>I have added a new layout in OC and selected it against the category<img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/FEE8a.png" alt="enter image description here"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/5Xok2.png" alt="enter image description here"></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Anyone got any ideas I might try to get this working correctly?  I have a load of templates to create for products, categories and information pages so would like to do this correctly.</p>
  
  <p>Tx in advance</p>
  
  <p>Stu</p>