Your layout files and templates are not showing up on front? You can see what’s going on with your layouts using Mage::log() method in your controller. The code below would log loaded layout handles and compiled layout update string into var/log/layout.log file.

 Here is how to enable the debug mode in your index.php file.

 public function testAction() { $this->loadLayout();
 // … //Somewhere within controller action after loadLayout() was called
 //The code below logs loaded layout handles to “var/log/<span class=”skimwords-unlinked”>layout.log</span>”

 file Mage::log( $this->getLayout()->getUpdate()->getHandles(),null,‘<span class=”skimwords-unlinked”>layout.log</span>’);

 //The code below logs merged layout to “var/log/<span class=”skimwords-unlinked”>layout.log</span>”

 file Mage::log($this->getLayout()->getUpdate()->asString(),null,‘<span class=”skimwords-unlinked”>layout.log</span>’); }