Answered Single Template Variable / Multiple Resources

Hi

I am currently trying to create a 'sidebar' sort of element for a website. I have created a template variable and given it access to a resource. It works fine on that page, but now I want to copy the sidebar code over to other pages. However, when I do this nothing shows up.

I am guessing it is something to do with giving the different templates access to the template variable, but then when I do that I have to manually set the template variable per resource. What can I do so that I only have to set the template variable on one resource, but it works for all of the pages I need it on?

Sorry if that does not make sense, I can explain further if needs be.

Andy

If the value doesn't change from page to page, use a chunk rather than a TV (with a chunk tag in the Template). TVs are for page-specific information and are significantly slower to process.

Hi Bob

Thanks for the quick reply as always!

How would I give the person updating the site (I am building this as a favour for a friend) access to this to update it if I did this as a chunk?

Currently, I am using the sidebar to display a featured artists section. This is set up so that I have a resource list TV (that is currently set to have home page template access only, as this was the page I started building first) that displays a list of the artists they have uploaded to the site (it is a record label, and the artists are child resources of a container resource using collections). This works fine for the home page, but then displays nothing on the other pages where the sidebar is placed. I guess thats to do with template access, but if I give the TV template access to any other page I have to manually set it again.

How would I go about setting it so that it is a site wide setting instead? So that they select which artist they want to feature from a drop down list and then it allows every page to access this where required? Can I do that with a TV, or is there some other way to set site wide information?

Andy

Hi Claytonk

FastField worked perfectly. Thanks so much.

I do indeed love ModX. It takes some serious getting used to over other CMS' but it so much more powerful out of the box. That said, I wish there was a bit of an overhaul on the documentation side of it. It can be a real mission to find what you are after sometimes, trawling through endless forum posts and the like.

Anyway, thanks again!

Andy

Yet another way to go is to create a System Setting (assuming that the value is not too large). To let the user set the value, you can use Mark Hamstra's ClientConfig, or you can create a front-end form with a fairly simple snippet to set the value, or you can create a Custom Manager Page (with or without MIGX), or you can create snippet-type Widget.