General UDT Question re: accessing module output etc

[wakewatcher]

I've got a general product support question but am showing a specific example to illustrate what I'm trying to learn.

When a UDT is invoked I want it to be able to invoke a module and retrieve its output data.

For example when a user gets to a certain page I want to log that into a database table. I was able to get my UDT to access and write into my table but I couldn't figure out how determine which user was on the page. I figured since the user had already logged in then his user id must be available somewhere. I found reference to putting $smarty = cmsms()->GetSmarty(); in a UDT but couldn't find what I was looking for (although it might be in there.) So I brute forced it. In my page content I did this:

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{FrontEndUsers form="silent"}
{page_timestamp id=$userid}

Then in my page_timestamp UDT I had the line:

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$id = $params['id']) ? $params['id'];  

to get the id. As mentioned that seems a bit clunky but works.

However I'm now playing around with events and this approach doesn't (seem to) work with events. Again a specific example but a general lack of understanding...

I've installed the JM_forum module and want on an "OnNewTopic" event to invoke a UDT that provides me information of the last posts so that I can do stuff with them. (e.g. poor man's email notification.) So for example from a page (or GCB) I can get that information by doing this.

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 {JM_Forum action="last_posts" assign="junk"}
<pre>
{if $itemcount > 0}
    {foreach from=$items item=entry}  
    {$entry->forum_name|cms_html_entity_decode}
      {$entry->subject|cms_html_entity_decode}
      {$entry->body|trim|strip_tags|summarize:40}
      {$entry->last_poster_time|rfc_date}
      {$entry->url}#msg{$entry->post_id}
    {/foreach}
{/if}
</pre>

So I guess my question boils down to how does one 'call' a module from within a UDT and then assign its output to php variables? (I think I understand smarty assignment the other way. e.g. pulling in php variables and then accessing them for displaying. Something like $smarty->assign('name', 'george smith'); {$name} but other than pulling passed parameters from the $params array I'm a bit stuck. -Thx-

[rotezecke]

smarty in UDT:

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$smarty = cmsms()->GetSmarty();
$smarty_data = "{CGSmartImage src='uploads/images/photos/wind/wind_turbine_paddock.jpg' filter_resize='w,300,0' filter_roundedcorners='10'}"; //
echo $smarty->display('string:'.$smarty_data);

module output in UDT:

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$feusers = cms_utils::get_module('FrontEndUsers');
$uid = $feusers->LoggedInId();
echo $uid;

[wakewatcher]

My delay in the thanks was me using your great tips and first digging in and figuring the rest out. (And additional thanks to the smarty website.) This is what I ended up with. There may be a more elegant way but this gets me the page into a variable which then, at the very least, I can parse to pull out the stuff I want.

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$smarty = cmsms()->GetSmarty(); 
$smarty_data = "{JM_Forum action='last_posts'}";
$smarty->setCaching(true);
// set a separate cache_id for each unique URL
$cache_id = md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
// capture the output
$output = $smarty->fetch('string:'.$smarty_data, $cache_id);

Thanks again!

[wakewatcher]

I spoke a bit too soon. While it works in a page as a udt it doesn't work when invoked by a triggered event. So positioning this as a general event handler question but using a specific example for illustration; Using the JM_Forum Module I've set up an "OnNewTopic" event triggered which invokes my "store_last" udt coded as:

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$smarty = cmsms()->GetSmarty();
$smarty_data = "{JM_Forum action='last_posts'}"; 
$smarty->setCaching(true);
$cache_id = md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
$output = $smarty->fetch('string:'.$smarty_data, $cache_id);
/*
Store $output in database
*/

I guess my general question is 1) is this a case (problem) of a UDT being processed differently when invoked from a page rather than an event or 2) is this a problem because my event is using functionality (morphed recursion?) of the module that triggered the event? That is JM_Forum is the module that triggers the "OnNewTopic" event and my event handler then uses (or tries to use) a rendition of JM_Forum to get information about the last posts in this case. -Thx-

[wakewatcher]

Problem doesn't seem to be item 2 above as it hangs the page no matter which event I pin it to. E.g. I invoked it with the FEU OnLogin event and it just hangs and times out. Hmmm.....

[wakewatcher]

I'd like to claim inspiration but I think more of desperation I just simplified and this seems to work as an event handler udt.

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$smarty_data = "{JM_Forum action='last_posts'}";
$output = $smarty->fetch('string:'.$smarty_data);
/*
Massage and store $output in database
*/

I read in the documentation that:

As of CMSMS version 1.11 it is invalid to overwrite the $smarty object that is passed in to the UDT with the global smarty object.
In example in a User Defined Tag this code is invalid and will cause errors:
$smarty = cmsms()->GetSmarty()

so I pulled that line and it still didn't work so I simplified it further as shown. I have no idea what will happen under load by turning off caching but for now it works.