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path not displaying when display-name is blank

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espanae

22 Jan, 2015 05:32 PM

Hi,
I'm working on Cascade 7.8 and can't figure out why the attached velocity script isn't displaying the page path when the display-name's blank (like on lines 45, 71, 97 and 123 of the attached index block)? Here's my if statement :

#if ( $display != "")
<li><a href="${link}">${_EscapeTool.xml($display)}</a></li>
#else
  <li><a href="${link}">${path}</a></li>
#end

The script should list each page's display-name or path if display-name's blank. Thoughts?

Erik

• when-display-name-is-blank-print-page-path.vm 1.14 KB
• folder-type-index-block.xml 13.8 KB

1. 1 Posted by Ryan Griffith on 22 Jan, 2015 06:50 PM

   

   Hi Erik,

   The issue is when there is no value for Display Name $page.getChild("display-name") will return null. If you attempt to check either $page.getChild("display-name") or $page.getChild("display-name").value, Velocity will simply dump those statements as plaintext. This will cause your conditional to return true since technically speaking the variable is not an empty string.

   Instead, I suggest one of the following:

   #set ( $display = $page.getChild("display-name") )
       
   ## Print the display-name
   #if ( $display && $display.value != "")
       <li><a href="${link}">${_EscapeTool.xml($display.value)}</a></li>
   #else
       ## Print the path when the display-name is blank.
       <li><a href="${link}">${path}</a></li>
   #end
   

   To be a little more self-documenting, you could use the Property Tool's isNull method to check if the element is null:

   #set ( $display = $page.getChild("display-name") )
       
   ## Print the display-name
   #if ( !$_PropertyTool.isNull($display) && $display.value != "")
       ...
   #else
       ...
   #end
   

   Please let me know if you have any questions.

   Thanks!

   • Edit

2. 2 Posted by espanae on 22 Jan, 2015 08:31 PM

   

   Ryan, thanks for the quick reply. I tried your suggestion, which makes sense, but it still showed display-name instead of path. Here's an excerpt of the HTML now generated:

   <li><a href="...">Judicial Definitions </a></li>                    
   <li><a href="..."></a></li>
   <li><a href="..."></a></li>
   

   Attached is the code I tried. Let me know if you get something different.

   • if-display-and-display-value-notequalto-blank.vm 1.17 KB
   • Edit

3. 3 Posted by Ryan Griffith on 22 Jan, 2015 09:10 PM

   

   Thank you for testing and following up, Erik. My apologies the snippet I provided did not appear to work.

   Oddly, using your sample XML as an XML Block and your original Format, I was able to get all but one page to output false.

   I believe part of my issue with testing locally is, depending on your version of Cascade Server, I believe Index Blocks began omitting empty elements as opposed to using a self-closing tag. For example, i am seeing self-closing <display-name/> elements in your sample XML whereas when I was testing locally with an existing Index Block I was not seeing any <display-name> elements.

   A little more complex, but you could possibly try the following:

   #foreach ( $page in $block )
       #set ( $link = $page.getChild("link").value )
       #set ( $display = "" )
       #set ( $path = $page.getChild("path").value )
   
       ## Check to see if the display-name element exists.
       #if ($page.indexOf("display-name") != -1)
           #set ( $display = $page.getChild("display-name").value )
       #end
   
       ## If $display is empty, fall back to the path.
       #if ( $display.trim() == "")
           #set ( $display = $path )
       #end
       
       <li><a href="${link}">${_EscapeTool.xml($display)}</a></li>
   #end
   

   Please let me know if you have any questions.

   Thanks!

   • Edit

4. 4 Posted by espanae on 23 Jan, 2015 02:49 PM

   

   Thanks a bunch, Ryan.
   The more complex code worked. I wouldn't have figured it out without your help.

   -Erik

   • Edit

5. espanae closed this discussion on 23 Jan, 2015 02:50 PM.