Answered MODX terms, Using a value

I have an interesting question. I have a template which outputs a value from the db, and I want to use that value to do additional things.

In Discuss, I am trying to modify the post view, in order to put some icons in the user panel of a post, under the avatar and user name.

In the template, I get a value which is the number of the user's posts, which appears below the user avatar:

[[+author.posts]]

What this is is the number of posts that the current user (author here) has made. I think I can say that its a db call happening in the backend, which basically says for each post go get user data, find current user, (output avatar and user name), then output number of posts.

What we want to do is take that value and use it. If the posts <50, then output basic_user_icon, and if >50, output advanced_user_icon, and so on. Basically a graphic, but could be anything.

How to grab this value? It seems like its right there, we could just grab it and use it...but maybe I am wrong.

Can we do it in this template, which seems the most direct and simple way to do it, or should we think in terms of a stand-alone tool? Any advice? It seems we can't put code freely in this place...


Here is the relevant section of the template.

Here's the problem in the words of my tech guy:

to try to figured out what need to be used to make it work with modx lang like [[+post_count:greater:10:then=`Master`]] or something like that ... i shoot in dark to find the exact command if he even exist ...

Can someone point to these modx values?

Ah right, of course the snippet lets us put php in places where we can't put php, brilliant!

But one question, why does this change to +post_count rather than +author.posts? Is this just an example?

That seems strange to me, and relies on an understanding that post_count is user post count and not, for example, number of posts in that thread...

Anyway, thanks so much, this will guide him quite a bit and save his time.

Yes, it's just an example. I took it from the post of your tech guy. You should use +author.posts if that's what the placeholder is.

Right, of course, it only makes sense.

Wow, 3 ways to do it, but absolutely the snippet is the way to go. I need to see that more clearly in the future.

So just as I thought, the data is there in the placeholder and can be grabbed and manipulated pretty freely.

Right, technically, it's being sent to the snippet as a property. In a snippet, all properties (the things preceded by & in the tag) are in the $scriptProperties array.

You could get it with $scriptProperties['count'], but using $modx->getOption() is more convenient because it lets you set a default value and won't throw a PHP error if the property is not set.

right, and then any output I can style either by making a chunk or using a div and applying css to that div, with the chunk being the scalable option.

That's right. For simple cases, you can choose to put the HTML in the snippet.
For anything more complex, you can just create a Tpl chunk with placeholders and then do this in the snippet:



All the placeholders will be replaced during the getChunk() call.

Yeah I had some confusion about this before, will be looking into it.

Thanks again!