Answered Need to run my plugin logic/tactic by you ModX wizards

Hey gents,

I wanted to run this past you folks to see if I'm approaching this the right way.

So I have a protected file area set up - files are in a directory protected by a .htaccess file - and each of these files (mostly PDFs) in turn has a static resource for it, which can have varying permissions set - registered members, strategic partners, anonymous, etc.

Each of these static resources I am applying a template to to accomplish different things:

1 - just download the file
2 - download and email someone inside our org
3 - download and log to db.
4 - download, email someone and log to db.

I originally accomplished this by inside each of the templates executing a snippet before the content - so for the #4 scenario above, the template looked like this:

[[logDownloadSnippet]]
[[emailUserSnippet]]
[[*content]]

This setup worked pretty well, but i did find it somewhat unreliable, and it did not work at all in Internet Explorer for some reason. I suspect because even though each of those snippets returned nothing, it was buggering up the PDF formatting enough to confuse IE. So... I went back to the drawing board.

Which brings me to where I am today. I modified each of my action templates to only include [[*content]] which now works in all browsers.

Now - to accomplish the tasks the snippets previously performed, I wrote a plugin that evaluates on EVERY page load (via the system event: OnWebPagePrerender) what template is currently driving the current resource. Based on this, the plugin executes the various tasks. Seems to be working perfectly.

So - what brings me here? A gnawing suspicion that perhaps there is a better way. Am I adding a crazy amount of overhead by executing this template check on EVERY page prerender? Is there a better way to attach a plugin action to a template or resource?

Basically, this is the abbreviated template check:

switch ($thisTemplate) {
case 'Downloader.Emailer.Logger':
sendTheEmail();
logTheDownload();
break;
case 'Downloader.Emailer':
sendTheEmail();
break;
case 'Downloader.Logger':
logTheDownload();
break;
}

Thanks in advance for the sanity check guys (and/or gals). Much appreciated

No, I think that's about as good as you're going to get.

By the way, you can store your files outside of the web root, and static resources can still access them. No need for the htaccess directives.

You can create a media source for the directory, and the static resources will see the media source structure. It won't pick up the media source definiton's path, though, so I use a chunk with the same path as set in the media source, for example '../downloads/', and prefix the path that the static resource does pick up with the chunk:

Quote from: sottwell at Jul 03, 2013, 04:18 AM

No, I think that's about as good as you're going to get.

By the way, you can store your files outside of the web root, and static resources can still access them. No need for the htaccess directives.

You can create a media source for the directory, and the static resources will see the media source structure. It won't pick up the media source definiton's path, though, so I use a chunk with the same path as set in the media source, for example '../downloads/', and prefix the path that the static resource does pick up with the chunk:

[[+pathPrefix]]rest/of/path/to/file.pdf

Interesting! I tried this in the beginning, but I could not get it to work for some reason. The files never got served up. I'll revisit, as this would definitely be preferred. Thanks!

Quote from: BobRay at Jul 03, 2013, 07:53 AM

Note that if you're using $modx->resource->get('template'), you'll be getting the template's ID, not its name, but using the ID will be much faster than getting the template object and retrieving its name, which would be the alternative.

Awesome Bob - great advice as always. I was retrieving it's name and will adjust to grab id instead. Many thanks!

Quote from: robcarey at Jul 03, 2013, 02:07 PM

Quote from: BobRay at Jul 03, 2013, 07:53 AM

Note that if you're using $modx->resource->get('template'), you'll be getting the template's ID, not its name, but using the ID will be much faster than getting the template object and retrieving its name, which would be the alternative.

Awesome Bob - great advice as always. I was retrieving it's name and will adjust to grab id instead. Many thanks!

It sounds like you might possibly be misunderstanding me. I'm suggesting not getting the Template object at all, but rather just testing the ID you get from $modx->resource->get('template'):

(replace the numbers with the actual IDs of the templates)

Quote from: BobRay at Jul 03, 2013, 09:01 PM

Quote from: robcarey at Jul 03, 2013, 02:07 PM

Quote from: BobRay at Jul 03, 2013, 07:53 AM

Note that if you're using $modx->resource->get('template'), you'll be getting the template's ID, not its name, but using the ID will be much faster than getting the template object and retrieving its name, which would be the alternative.

Awesome Bob - great advice as always. I was retrieving it's name and will adjust to grab id instead. Many thanks!

It sounds like you might possibly be misunderstanding me. I'm suggesting not getting the Template object at all, but rather just testing the ID you get from $modx->resource->get('template'):

(replace the numbers with the actual IDs of the templates)

switch ($modx->resource->get('template')) {
    case 3:
        sendTheEmail();
        logTheDownload();
        break;
    case 5:
        sendTheEmail();
        break;
    case '4':
        logTheDownload();
        break;
}

return '';

Nope - I got your gist Bob and implemented it exactly as above - works perfect! Thanks!