Testing to see if a content block exists / contains content

[megwoo]

I'm a newbie to CMS made simple, so I suspect this may be an easy question--I just couldn't find an answer in the forums...

I'm trying to display special html formatting in a template ONLY if a content block exists / contains text, so I need to figure out how to test for a content block.

My content block is named "spotlight" and I've been trying things like this:

{if isset(content block="spotlight")} {/if}
{if isset($spotlight)} {/if}
{if $spotlight} {/if}

But nothing has worked. Does anyone know how I can refer to the "spotlight" content block from within a template?

THANK YOU!!!

[Ted]

These kinds of tricks won't work in 0.10.3/4 because of the way that the content tag used to be handled.  However...  0.11beta4 will allow it, since there was a big overhaul of how smarty does it's thing.

The other option is to do something like....
{capture name='contentoutput'}{content block="blah"}{/capture}
{if smarty.capture.contentoutput ne ''}{/if}

[megwoo]

Wishy, Thanks for your prompt reply!

At first I couldn't get it to work, but then I added a '$':

{if $smarty.capture.contentoutput ne ''}{/if}

It works beautifully. Thanks!

[Ted]

Ah, yeah.  Sorry about that. 

No problem.

[Dr. J]

hmm... I'm trying the same thing but it doesn't work - am I doing something wrong?

{capture name=contentoutput}
{content block='info'}
{/capture}
{if $smarty.capture.contentoutput ne ''}


{$smarty.capture.contentoutput}


{/if}

regardless of the contents of the block 'info' the section within {if}{/if} is shown.

pls help

[Ted]

Make sure this is all on one line:

Code: Select all

{capture name=contentoutput}{content block='info'}{/capture}

.  It's picking up the newlines and the output will never be empty.

[Dr. J]

Hi Wishy,

I'v tried putting the code in one line but the result is the same: The conditional section is shown whether there is content or not.

Btw - I'm using CMSMS 0.11.1

Cheers!

[Dr. J]

Do you have any idea why it doesn't work for me?

I think it might be a caching issue. It doesn't matter if I type something in the content block or if I leave it empty. The {if} statement returns true.

I've tried using {capture name=xxx} and {capture assign=xxx}

I've also tried to add |count_characters and then change the conditional statement to

Code: Select all

{capture assign=foobar}{content block='info'}{/capture}
{if $foobar|count_characters >0}HTML TO BE SHOWN{/if}

but either way the conditional statement returns true...

pls help - I'm loosing my mind here 

[Ted]

So, I guess the question is...  what is in $foobar?

Code: Select all

{capture assign=foobar}{content block='info'}{/capture}
Start:{$foobar}:End

[Dr. J]

That's the problem...

Code: Select all

{capture assign=foobar}{content block='info'}{/capture}
Start:{$foobar}:End
{if $foobar ne ""}
	We've got content!<br>
{/if}

$foobar contains the content from the content block but "We've got content!" is apparently being displayed regardless of the content of $foobar!?

On one page it says:
Start:hello world:End
We've got content!

And on the other (empty) page it says:
Start::End
We've got content!

Am I missing something?

[Jacob Hage]

Has anyone else experienced this problem? or am I doing something wrong?

Guess it must be either a bug or a whitespace problem...
Wishy, can you confirm whether if it's a bug or perhaps replicate my setup?

Thanks

[Ted]

I don't have much time at the moment to investigate this.  Though, quickly thinking, maybe a strip modifier is in order.  Just in case there is a weird character or something in there.

Code: Select all

{capture assign=foobar}{content block='info'|strip}{/capture}
Start:{$foobar}:End
{if $foobar ne ""}
	We've got content!<br>
{/if}

[fadum]

There seems to be lots of examples in this topic, can someone tell me what i should use in 0.11.1?

i need to display only if content exists

Thanks

[fadum]

Ive tried all methods mentioned and allways get "True"

even with strip i get:

Start::End We've got content!

Any ideas please?

[fadum]

Does anyone know another way to achieve this?? its driving me mad

Thanks