Controlling Widgets in your Templates - If Statements based on Titles & Widget Counts

NathanB — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 08:35:09 +1300

Hey Everybody. I just had some issues since I'm still learning SilverStripe templating, and I figure there're a few others like me. So, this is a brief write-up of what I've learned. Maybe it'll help a few others out there?

IF Statements that were based on the page/Widget's $Title variable:
First of all, two requirements of the template needed me to hide some Widget titles, but show the titles on other pages.
Though it's a bit messy, I realize that some (if not all) Widgets have default titles.

Since I was using the Custom HTML Widget, I put the following code into my template's custom WidgetArea.ss :

<% if Title = Info %> <% else %> $Title <% end_if %>

Since I was so used to PHP, I was expecting the IF statement to require a $ before Title, or quotes around "Info" to signify that it was a string. Since SilverStripe somehow managed to figure this out itself, I was good.

Altering CSS/HTML Based on Widgets a page may Possess:
This new template may have pages that have no side bar-- and if there is no side bar, I needed the HTML to be altered to pertain to the CSS. In my case, I wanted to alter/add Classes to a div tag.

Example:
Desired Page code without widgets:

Desired Page code WITH Widgets:

Here is the code I tried:

<div id="container"
<% control Widgets %>a <% if TotalItems %>class="sidebar"<% else %> <% end_if %> b <% end_control %>
>

This won't work because I am not controlling the right thing--. <% control Sidebar %> worked out. See the revised, working code below:

<div id="container"
class="<% control Sidebar %><% if Widgets.TotalItems %>sidebar<% else %><% end_if %><% end_control %>
" >

I managed to accomplish the above when remembering that controls/IF statements didn't want the $ sign, and when I realized that Widgets were the children of the Sidebar item.

I realize that some of this may seem pretty easy to an experienced SilverStripe coder, but I wanted to put the word out there.
Let me know if this helps you! 8)

~Nathan B
Web Design by Polar Design

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Controlling Widgets in your Templates - If Statements based on Titles & Widget Counts