string comparison of a TV

OK I am writing a custom snippet and it refers to a TV which varies from page to page to represent different resorts.

The different resorts have an id which is a number so to check the status of a value I am checking its status like this:
$downhill = ’[+resortinfo_Downhill_[*resort_id*]+]’;

If I echo this I get either "yes" or "no" as an output (correctly) depending on which resort I am referring to via the TV.

Now if I do a
strlen($downhill);

The result is 37 which has me baffled. The database field is a varchar(3) so it can’t be any longer than 3.

I figured perhaps it is only resolving to a string on echo somehow so I have even tried (string) $downhill and it is still stringlength 37.

All I want to do is a simple if then comparision

if ($downhill == ’yes’) {
do this
}

But it never equates to yes, even though on echo it does. I have tried trim($downhill) with no effect, still strlen 37.

I know this is cumbersome but I am trying to identify every step to work out what is happening.



results in : downhill : -yes-

If I look at the source html there are no returns or anything hiding there between the two -’s just -yes-

Yet if I compare $downhill2 == ’yes’ it always fails and I suspect the string length is the issue but I just can’t get my head around why the stringlength would be 37 when the database entry is a varchar(3) and has a value of yes and that is returning!

Any ideas, would be greatly appreciated.

You can’t use any of the {{}}, [[]], [**], [++] syntax in PHP. You have to use the API functions instead: http://wiki.modxcms.com/index.php/Category:API_Function

Get a [+placeholder+] with:
http://www.modxcms.com/getplaceholder.html

Get a [*TV*] output with:
http://wiki.modxcms.com/index.php/API:getTemplateVarOutput
http://modxcms.com/gettemplatevaroutput.html

OK thanks. It is interesting that it actually works (sort of) in that it does echo the correct value and if I echo the TV it gives the correct ID number. Weird.

OK then one for the dummies, I am new to this. Why is it an array back?

I just want the value of in this case say [+resortinfo_Downhill_4+]

So [*resort_id*] = 4

Using the API functions it says it returns an array so this wouldn’t work?



as $resort_id in this instance would be an array. An array of what? The result should be a single integer return.

How would I code this?

Sorry but I don’t follow the nomenclature and there are no examples in those links, just trying to get my head around the syntax.

Once I have it sorted I will add it to the wiki for others.

Thanks.

OK sorted it.

The return is an associative array. So



All working. Thanks.