Removing the Compare function in Magento, the easy way

Posted by Ashley on Jul 12, 2009 • (26)

I normally always want to remove the Compare/Add to Compare functionality from the Magento stores I create, and in the past have changed the template files as though the compare functionality is being hidden in the theme. In a lot of ways that’s probably a fairly reasonable way to disable it, but something seems clunky about going through a bunch of phtml files in Magento directories grep‘ing and replacing Add to Compare everywhere. I recently did it a different way, that although may be slightly less well separated from the core Magento functionality (in terms of keeping the changes at the UI layer) – I think it makes it clearer.

There are really only ~~two~~ ~~three~~ four (Thanks Matt and Paulo) steps to removing the compare functionality, and they’re all fairly easy, here’s how to do it:

Disable comparison functionality in Magento

I did this on the command line, but I’ll explain the commands for those of you stuck in cPanel/Plesk/GUI hell. These commands are all run from the root of your Magento store.

First create the local override directory:

mkdir -p app/code/local/Mage/Catalog/Helper/Product/

Making this local code directory that mirrors the core Mage folder structure will allow Magento to pick up your custom file. WHich we now make by copying the original from app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Helper/Product/Compare.php and putting it in the new directory we made app/code/local/Mage/Catalog/Helper/Product/:

cp app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Helper/Product/Compare.php app/code/local/Mage/Catalog/Helper/Product/

Now we just make one small change to the file, by basically telling this helper to never return a comparison URL, the front end will never show the add to compare links. The change is made in the getAddUrl() function.

 public function getAddUrl($product)
    {
        #return $this->_getUrl('catalog/product_compare/add', $this->_getUrlParams($product));
        # We disable compare functionality by commenting out the real return statement and returning false instead.
        # Returning a boolean from a function that should return a string, somewhere, a kitten dies.
        return false;
    }

Save the file and you’re done. Now when you refresh the product/category page (you disabled the Magento cache right?) then you’ll no longer see the ‘add to compare’ links by the add to cart buttons.

Remove the Compare sidebar element

There is also the matter of the sidebar element, here’s the easy way to get rid of that.

Edit your theme’s catalog.xml file which is found in the app/design/frontend/X/Y/layout/ directory, where X and Y are your theme and package, possibly just default and default.

Remove the part that looks like this within the first <default> element:

 <reference name="right">
            <block type="core/template" before="cart_sidebar" name="catalog.compare.sidebar" template="catalog/product/compare/sidebar.phtml"/>
            <block type="core/template" name="right.permanent.callout" template="callouts/right_col.phtml"/>
 </reference>

This has the nice side effect of removing the back to school specials block too, obviously if you are actually running a back to school special, then only remove this line from the <reference> element:

<block type="core/template" before="cart_sidebar" name="catalog.compare.sidebar" template="catalog/product/compare/sidebar.phtml"/>

Edit: Thanks to Matt for pointing this out.

To remove the compare sidebar from the My Account section of the Magento store edit the file: customer.xml inapp/design/frontend/X/Y/layout/. Find the section:

<customer_account>

And remove this line from it:

<block type="core/template" name="catalog.compare.sidebar" template="catalog/product/compare/sidebar.phtml"/>

Edit: And thanks to Paulo for pointing this out – the compare sidebar is also included in the reports.xml file, so remove it from there in the same way:

<default>
    <!-- Mage_Reports -->
    <reference name="right">
        <block type="reports/product_viewed" before="right.permanent.callout" name="right.reports.product.viewed" template="reports/product_viewed.phtml" />
        <block type="reports/product_compared" before="right.permanent.callout" name="right.reports.product.compared" template="reports/product_compared.phtml" />
    </reference>
</default>

The line to remove is:

<block type=”reports/product_compared” before=”right.permanent.callout” name=”right.reports.product.compared” template=”reports/product_compared.phtml” />

And that should be it, no more compare functionality. Maybe it’d be nice to make this into a Magento extension, so that it can be enabled and disabled on the admin interface. If there is enough interest in that, I’ll bundle up my code change, it’s really only one file, after all. If you’re after something like that – let me know.

26 Comments

Nic says:
July 13th, 2009 at 10:04 pm

Ashley -

Make it an extension! I think the majority of Magento deployments are manufacturers looking to sell only their product. It would be a welcome extension.
Jerome says:
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:44 pm

i will appreciate it as an extension !

a well done and good find !
Jerome says:
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:31 pm

Damn, because of the command prompht, i screwed my whole website.

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: Entity: line 60:

at treoo.com
Ashley says:
July 25th, 2009 at 9:03 pm

Hi,

That error tends to be caused by incorrect XML in your configuration files. Please check, and double check that you have not got an error in any of the XML files you edited. If still a problem please let me know. Unlikely to be caused by the commandline, in any case.
Nic says:
August 3rd, 2009 at 8:54 am

That simplexml error can also be because of browser cache/cookies
Matt says:
August 19th, 2009 at 7:28 am

Thanks for this. I have followed your above instructions and Compare has been removed from everywhere except the My Account sidebar.. Where can I edit that out?

An extension would be hugely appreciated, save people a lot of searching

Cheers!
Ashley says:
August 19th, 2009 at 12:56 pm

Hi, Good point

It’s in customer.xml, the section remove the line:

Cheers,
Ashley
Ashley says:
August 19th, 2009 at 12:59 pm

doh, I’ll just update the article, the comments don’t take kindly to XML I see!
Matt says:
August 20th, 2009 at 4:57 pm

Excellent, thanks Ashley
John Richardson says:
October 6th, 2009 at 10:01 am

Thank you!!! I must have looked for over two hours trying to find a solution… and none were so elegant and simple as yours. I really appreciate the help – finally I can get rid of the compare functionality .
Ian says:
October 26th, 2009 at 9:53 pm

Nice one! It’d be nicer as an extension
Alex says:
December 29th, 2009 at 12:04 pm

Please, pelase make a extension – for my sake and surely for many, many magento users. Not many need that compare thing.
David says:
March 24th, 2010 at 5:14 pm

YES!! EXTENSION!! (and from a business stand point, you will attract a LOT of Magento ppl in the community just with this little extension… but I’m sure you know this already :/ )
Larso says:
March 29th, 2010 at 8:41 am

Thanx and very well done, but
“catalog.xml file which is found in the app/design/frontend/X/Y/layout/” does not seem to be there anymore in Magento ver. 1.4.0.1. Or am I wrong ?
Ashley says:
March 29th, 2010 at 11:31 am

Should be there. The X and Y are place holders for your theme – that may be default and default for example.
Larso says:
March 30th, 2010 at 3:40 am

ok, found it. i was looking in ‘default’ but the actual folder is called ‘base’ since the upgrade. thanks again.
Paulo Matos says:
April 27th, 2010 at 1:43 pm

Hi Ashley!

Seems that you forgot about the file

X/Y/layout/reports.xml

to comment the line

Excelent article.

Cheers

Paulo
Paulo Matos says:
April 28th, 2010 at 4:45 pm

Well the code was wipped out, let me try to escape it… Remove the following line from reports.xml

<block type=”reports/product_compared” before=”right.permanent.callout” name=”right.reports.product.compared” template=”reports/product_compared.phtml” />
Ashley says:
April 28th, 2010 at 7:49 pm

Thanks Paulo I updated the post
Chae says:
May 17th, 2010 at 7:54 pm

Thanks Ashley for the tips above – all worked a treat. You’d think Magento would have these sort of things switched on & off as & when wanted through admin by now.
Ingmar says:
June 29th, 2010 at 2:20 pm

Thanks Ashley, so easy, even for a goof like me.
DangerMouse says:
August 7th, 2010 at 6:03 am

Please correct me if I’m wrong – I only installed Magenot this week – but isn’ it good practice to create a new XML file to adjust the layout and use something like:

”

I appreciate that this doesn’t remove the functionality just the visual – I’m working on how to do that side of it!

Cheers,

Steve
John Galt says:
August 7th, 2010 at 2:20 pm

“Maybe it’d be nice to make this into a Magento extension, so that it can be enabled and disabled on the admin interface. If there is enough interest in that, I’ll bundle up my code change, it’s really only one file, after all. If you’re after something like that – let me know..”

I see that several people have responded to your offer quite a while ago, has this ever been made into a one-click extension?

I am new to Magento, how will these changes impact me if I upgrade to new releases of Magento?

Thanks.
Ashley says:
August 7th, 2010 at 10:14 pm

Hi, DangerMouse – Wordpress has diligently hosed your XML from the comment I’m afraid. Please flick me an email and I’ll take a look at what you mean.
Ashley says:
August 7th, 2010 at 10:16 pm

Hi, John – no I haven’t made it an extension, I’ve not really got around to it.
Yigal says:
August 12th, 2010 at 1:52 am

Thank you!
That PHP trick is way better than other solutions I found.