Hi guys, a question - in order to prevent any mistakes design/coding.

I noticed that when I create methods to be displayed in templates, they sometimes appeared in the template, and sometimes not. I noticed that if they are present in the page class itself, it is fine. If a method is present in the controller, sometimes they appear and sometimes they don't (at least that's my observation so far).

Is it an issue if I am accessing a method of a class that I passed to the template via a DataObject::get clause (so not the currently running controller, of the page viewed). E.g. I have an aggregator page that parses Joomla articles. I reference this one in the controller of the HomePage.php class like this:

...
public function JoomlaPage() {
	$joomlaPage=DataObject::get("JoomlaAggregatorPage","URLSegment='joomla-aggregator'");
	return $joomlaPage;
}
...

In the JoomlaAggregatorPage.php in the class JoomlaAggregatorPage_Controller I have:

...

public function Items($limit = 10) {
    ...
}

...

In the HomePage.ss template I then do:

<% control JoomlaPage.Items %>
     $properties_of_items
<% end_control %>

I noticed I can access the properties of the page itself but the control block doesn't return anything. Scoping problem?

Any insight on this would be amazing :)

Both JoomlaPage() and Items() need to go in the Page/SiteTree class, not the controller.

>> If a method is present in the controller, sometimes they appear
>> and sometimes they don't (at least that's my observation so far).

There is a logic to that: the current Page_Controller takes care of displaying the current page. That's why the page controller methods are available in the Template.

However, once you enter a <% control %> ... <% end_control %> structure, you deal with DataObjects. That goes as well for pages that are returned by Children(), Menu() or DataObject::get() methods: they are Page objects - NOT Page_Controllers, so you can only access their Page methods.

Okay thanks for the response! Now, a question that follows - is there a way for a page class to access a method in the page_controller class? E.g. if I create class methods that need a method that is in the controller, is there a reference that I can use to access them or would I need to duplicate the methods into the controller?

Thank you :)