Usage of the &save parameter and [+_ditto_object+]

[Guest]

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[The Man Can!]

Is there any additional information on using the save parameter?
I'm trying to use PHx to say, "If Ditto has output, then do this, else do something else", but the [+dittoid_ditto_object+] and [+dittoid_ditto_resource+] placeholders don't seem to return anything, regardless of which save mode I try.

I'm assuming that it's because it's a placeholder for the object itself and not the output of the Ditto call, but is there a way to get Ditto to actually output to a placeholder? I could have sworn there was, but I'm not seeing anything in the code or docs other than the save parameter.

Thanks for any ideas.

[heliotrope]

Hi Brett,

you can use the [+total+] placeholder instead.

[+total:isnot=``:then=``+]

:-)

[The Man Can!]

Thanks for the response, Heliotrope. I wouldn't have thought of that. In case anybody else needs this, keep in mind you'll need to add &paginate=`1` and &paginateAlwaysShowLinks=`1` to your ditto call to get the [+total+] to show up.

So that takes care of the bigger issue, but as far as the actual Ditto output going to a placeholder, is that possible? Without some way to output to a placeholder I'd need to duplicate the Ditto call, which isn't the end of the world, but I'd rather not if it's avoidable.

Code:

[[Ditto? &parents=`39` &tpl=`event_link_mini` &display=`100` &id=`seminars` &sortBy=`date_start` &sortDir=`ASC` ]]
[+phx:if=`[+seminars_total+]`:ne=``:then=`
<div class="container">
<h2 class="h1">Seminars</h2>
[+seminars_ditto_object+] <!-- Ditto call would have to be duplicated here -->
</div>
`+]

EDIT: Yeah, outputting to a placeholder is definitely gonna be useful, or the first ditto call (that generates the +total+ placeholder, needs to have its output hidden with CSS or commented out or something...

EDIT 2: I know this could be accomplished with a format config file, but I'd rather avoid that for a few reasons.

[Jesse R.]

I do not believe you can make use of those placeholders unless you set &save to something besides its default value of 0.  For instance:

Code:

[[Ditto? &parents=`39` &tpl=`event_link_mini` &display=`100` &id=`seminars` &sortBy=`date_start` &sortDir=`ASC` &save=`1`]]

You can find more information here:

http://ditto.modxcms.com/files/snippet-ditto-php.html#save

[The Man Can!]

Right, but regardless the value (1, 2, 3) the placeholders don't generate anything. At least, not for me.

The code I pasted above was the workaround, since I can't get &save to actually do anything (except not output anything).
The Ditto code actually replaces [+ _ditto_object+] with $ditto itself, the entire Ditto object, not the output, so I think that's why it's not replacing the placeholder with the output (unless I'm missing something about the makeup of the $ditto object itself).

At this point I've worked around the issue with the [+total+] idea and commenting out the first Ditto call's output, but I'm still kind of curious if it's possible.

[Jesse R.]

It would have probably helped if I reread your original post after looking at ditto and seeing that you quite clearly were talking about what I mentioned .  Now let's see if I can be of a little help.  I do not think Ditto places its output in a placeholder.  However, have you considered coding your own snippet to do exactly what you are looking to do?  Something like this:

Code:

<?php

$dittoParams = array(
'parents' => '39',
'tpl' => 'event_link_mini',
'display' => '100',
'sortBy' => 'date_start',
'sortDir' => 'ASC',
'id' => 'seminars'
                    );

$dittoOutput = $modx->runSnippet('Ditto', $dittoParams);

if ($dittoOutput != '') {
    return THIS;
} else {
    return THIS;
}

?>