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Passing dynamic variable into category template

Hi,

I have a category set called Styles which needs to be mulitlingual, and is set up as follows, modifying the regular category.html template to include fields for language variations :


<perch:before><ul></perch:before>
<li style="margin-left: <perch:category id="catDepth" type="hidden" />0px;">
    <h4><perch:category id="catTitle" type="smarttext" label="Title" required="true" /></h4>
    <perch:category id="catSlug" type="slug" for="catTitle" suppress="true" />
    <perch:category id="desc" type="textarea" label="Description" editor="markitup" markdown="true" size="s" />

    <perch:category id="catTitleEn" type="smarttext" label="Title En" required="true" />
    <perch:category id="catSlugEn" type="slug" for="catTitleEn" suppress="true" />

    <perch:category id="catTitleEs" type="smarttext" label="Title Es" required="true" />
    <perch:category id="catSlugEs" type="slug" for="catTitleEs" suppress="true" />

    <perch:category id="catTitleFr" type="smarttext" label="Title Fr" required="true" />
    <perch:category id="catSlugFr" type="slug" for="catTitleFr" suppress="true" />

</li>
<perch:after></ul></perch:after>

Within a collection template, I need to output this category info. I can get the output if I specifically ask for ids used in the template. For example, the following will output the Spanish:

<perch:categories id="restaurant_styles" set="styles">
<perch:before><ul></perch:before>
<li><a href="/<perch:category id="lang" />/<perch:category id="catSlugEs" />"><perch:category id="catTitleEs" /></a></li>
<perch:after></ul></perch:after>
</perch:categories>

But I need the output to be dynamic so I can output the right language when I need it.

I have a variable to indicate the current language and I can create a variable to match the field name that I need. I've tried setting this as a system variable and then passing it into the template:

$currentCatTitle = 'CatTitle' . $lang;
PerchSystem::set_var('currentCatTitle',$currentCatTitle);

I tried using the following <perch:category id="currentCatTitle" /> but it outputs the value of the variable currentCatTitle, and I also tried <perch:category id="{currentCatTitle}" /> which doesn't output anything.

So my question is: is there are way to achieve this dynamically?

(I could resolve this by adding in enough <perch:if> conditionals for each language but I'd prefer a cleaner solution if possible.)

Many thanks in advance for help or suggestions.
Simon Kelly

Simon Kelly 0 points

  • 3 years ago
Drew McLellan

Drew McLellan 2638 points
Perch Support

3 years ago

Have you tried <perch:showall> ?
Simon Kelly

Simon Kelly 0 points

3 years ago

Hi Drew,

Yes, and it shows that currentCatTitle is available.

I can use it to output the value of currentCatTitle to the page with <perch:category id="currentCatTitle" /> . But I was hoping that <perch:category id="{currentCatTitle}" /> would evaluate the variable so that I can use it dynamically. Is that not a behaviour that I can expect?

Thanks
Drew McLellan

Drew McLellan 2638 points
Perch Support

3 years ago

I don't understand what you're asking. Can you give an example of how you're trying to use it?
Simon Kelly

Simon Kelly 0 points

3 years ago

I have a category set called Styles that allows me to provide category names in multiple languages. In addition to the fields in the default category.html´ template, I have added fields calledcatTitleEn,catTitleEs,catTitleFr`, and here I can enter my multilingual options for example Rustic, Rústico, Rustique.

I have a collection called Facts where users can assign a category from this set to the collection item as follows:

<perch:categories id="restaurant_styles" label="Styles" set="styles" display-as="checkboxes">

I have another collection called Restaurants where I can assign a category from the Styles category set in the Facts collection:

<perch:related id="restaurants_facts" collection="Restaurants Facts" label="Facts" max="1" required="true">
<perch:categories id="restaurant_styles" label="Styles" set="styles" display-as="checkboxes">
</perch:related>

To output a list of all the Styles categories assigned to an item in the Restaurants collection, I use a template ´_restaurants-listing.html´ with ´perch_collection´. This template can show all the English titles with the following:

<perch:related id="restaurants_facts" collection="Restaurants Facts">
<perch:categories id="restaurant_styles" set="styles">
<perch:before><ul></perch:before>
<li><perch:category id="catTitleEn" />
<perch:after></ul></perch:after>
</perch:categories>
</perch:related>

Or I can show all the Spanish title by adjusting it to:

<perch:related id="restaurants_facts" collection="Restaurants Facts">
<perch:categories id="restaurant_styles" set="styles">
<perch:before><ul></perch:before>
<li><perch:category id="catTitleEs" />
<perch:after></ul></perch:after>
</perch:categories>
</perch:related>

But I don't want to hardcode the field name (catTitleES, catTitleEn etc). Instead I want this to be dynamic.

I can easily create a variable (for example currentCatTitle based on the language currently required that will match the name of the field I want to show (catTitleES, catTitleEn etc) and pass it into the template. But if I use this in the template as follows, the output to the page is the value of the variable:

<perch:related id="restaurants_facts" collection="Restaurants Facts">
<perch:categories id="restaurant_styles" set="styles">
<perch:before><ul></perch:before>
<li><perch:category id="currentCatTitle" />
<perch:after></ul></perch:after>
</perch:categories>
</perch:related>

So in English will see on screen a <ul> with each <li> as catTitleEn, whereas want I want on screen is <ul> with each <li> showing what is entered in the category template on the catTitleEn field.

I thought that I could achieve this by wrapping the variable name in brackets (see below) but I don't get any output at all there.

<perch:related id="restaurants_facts" collection="Restaurants Facts">
<perch:categories id="restaurant_styles" set="styles">
<perch:before><ul></perch:before>
<li><perch:category id="{currentCatTitle}" />
<perch:after></ul></perch:after>
</perch:categories>
</perch:related>

Is that any clearer? Are you able to suggest anything?

Thanks
Drew McLellan

Drew McLellan 2638 points
Perch Support

3 years ago

No, you can't do that. I'd suggest dynamically switching templates instead.
Simon Kelly

Simon Kelly 0 points

3 years ago

Do you mean calling _restaurants-listing-en.html or _restaurants-listing-es.html, for example? Yes, I could do that but if that's the case I can just use conditionals in a single template.

This would be incredibly useful for building out multilingual sites. I don't know if anyone else has come up against this, but if it were to be looked at in the future, I'd be very happy!

Thanks for your help.