Something like "document variable" instead of TV

Hello,

I encountered a problem with TVs. I use Ditto to show all subpages on a parent page. Subpages contain TVs with some "document-specific" values. But when I display the parent page with all subpages taken by Ditto, all the TVs have values for this document but not values set for each subpage.
Maybe there is some which allows me to templarize the content (TV) but is attached strictly to the document and when ditto takes the content of a page, it renders those "DV - document variable" properly.

Imagine such example:
top level: Books
sub levels:
Book1
Book2
Book3

Each Book_ contains a variable "author" which a user sets while editing the page. Top level page - "Books" uses Ditto to show all books (Book1, Book2, Book3). If I use Ditto, authors are not presented correctly, because its another page and there can be only one value for "author" TV.

How to solve this problem?

Best regards
Greg

[tvauthor] in your template should show the author of Book1, Book2 etc. What are you using?

Hi,

we could help you more accurately if you give us more details such as Ditto call and Ditto chunk.


:-)

I know that I use tables and should do this on divs - will be done later

Ditto call (on parent page):
[[Ditto? &startID=`9` &trunc=0 &tpl=`Ditto Template`]]

Ditto Chunk (named "Ditto Template"):
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr><td align="left">[+summary+]</td></tr>
</table>



Subpages content:
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr><td align="left">[*tvauthor*]</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">[*tv_book_description*]</td></tr>
</table>

Both template variables defined - first as input, second as rich text field.

F1, F1, F1, ...

To achieve the expected result you’ll have to change both ditto call and ditto tpl

ditto call:

[[Ditto? &tagData=`tvtvauthor` &startID=`9` &trunc=0 &tpl=`Ditto Template` ]]

If the doc in which the list is displayed does not share the same teplate you’ll have to add the &hiddenTvs`tvtvauthor` param

In your ditto tpl:

<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr><td align="left">[+tvtvauthor+]</td></tr>
<tr><td align="left">[+summary+]</td></tr>
</table>



As you can see to access TV you have to prefix their name with tv.

More info here => http://www.modxcms.com/ditto_parameters.html

:-)

Thanks, I’ll try this.

Some more questions concerning Your idea:

1. what if I have more (about 5) variables?
2. parent page and subpages share the same template - does this change anything? Should I chjange this to have two separate templates?

1. what if I have more (about 5) variables?

Add them to the &tagData param
for instance:
&tagData=`tvtvauthor,tvPublishedYear,tvcategory` and so on

2. parent page and subpages share the same template - does this change anything? Should I chjange this to have two separate templates?

It doesn’t matter and depends on your site structure.
If you decide to have two separate templates you’ll have to update your ditto call and include &hiddenTVs param

Thanks a lot. At first I didn’t notice that for "tvauthor" variable a need a "tvtvauthor" entries for the ditto chunk and ditto call.

Now everything looks and works great.

Thanks again.