Template Variable Functionality

Hi All,

Our company has been using MODx for a while now, and think its great

We’ve run into a bit of a problem though. We require a kind of dynamic database editing functionality. I’ll qualify this now.
At the minute, we have template variables, which are great. You can select an editing input type for the template variable, which, when selected will be displayed to the user when they go to edit a page. This is one single value.

The functionality that we require though is that of an input type which can edit multiple rows, allowing us to add,edit and delete values associated with one template variable and one document. This then could be passed into the resulting page and processed into a table, list or range of values. Whatever.

I think this would be very powerful functionality, marrying the flexibility of modx and a sort of cake like ability. My questions are, firstly, does this functionality already exist in another guise and I just don’t know about it?

Secondly, if the functionality does not exist (in which case apologies for this post), is there an appetite out there for development of this? We are willing to put development time into this, but this won’t be worthwhile if future updates to modx do not include the updates.

If anybody has any thoughts on this, please let me know

Cheers
Troot

Can you provide a concrete example of what you’re looking for? There are currently no plans to directly support this but it sounds interesting and like something that could be considered for 097, which is built on top of xpdo and will be seeing an "official" public preview soon.

This "binding" of template variables to a database table is a good idea, and something that (as Ryan mentioned) should be much easier to accomplish in a generic way in the default manager come 0.9.7, including the ability to provide custom input/output widgets without modifying core files.

As for 0.9.6.x, I’d be glad to collaborate with you on the best way to achieve what you want for now, without complicating the migration process to 0.9.7 and beyond. I’m thinking designing an @TABLE binding, similar to @SELECT would be one approach, combined with a grid input widget. Or perhaps simply using a plugin to add an inline editing grid in the manager connected to your table directly, along with a snippet for front-end rendering might meet your needs for now?

Hi Guys,

Thanks for that, sounds encouraging. We were discussing it in here, and the reason a template variable sounded like a good fit was because it already has a link between document and variable, and the variable can then be placed in the appropriate place in the content.

rhthrash, I’ll post some grabs (photoshopped) tomorrow of where we would like to end up, in terms of functionality. Is the update to 097 radical? or would it be worthwhile writing something for 096 and then porting it?

OpenGeek, Yes, something like @TABLE would be perfect.

Cheers,
I’ll be in touch
Troot

Hi,

Ok, here are two grabs showing approximately where we’d like to end up. Let me know what ye think and maybe what would be the best way to approach this.

Cheers
Troot

nice grid input, Opengeek, is it planned to be added on some 0.9.6.2 or 0.9.7 ? That could be great...

Very interesting. That would be a nice addition.