Thanks mrhaw, your enthusiasm to keep tinkering is great.
- Did you get haschilds.phx.php?
Yes. I downloaded it from Jako's github page.
I created it as a snippet directly in manage elements / snippets and called it "phx:haschilds" with a call like so: [*id:haschilds:then=`has children`:else=`no children`*]
- I suspect this IMPROVEMENT changed things
http://tracker.modx.com/issues/9684
Ah ok, bummer!
- Have you tried using the if snippet?
Eureka!!! You know what, I had tried the IF snippet but I must have had the call wrong.
I tried again and
this works:
[[if? &is=`[[Ditto? &parents=`[*id*]` &noResults=`zero`]]:not:zero` &then=`` &else=`blah blah blah`]]
To me it sounds a little like the reverse of what should be happening (eg - if not zero, then be empty - otherwise it is zero so don't be empty) but it is working.
The plugin / snippet idea is nice - but I think not needed now that the IF snippet is doing it.
Many thanks for your help and patience mrhaw.