Variable modifiers
The variables used for personalization can be altered with modifiers. A modifier
is called on the variable by appending it with a | before the closing curly
brace. E.g. if you want to apply the tolower modifier on
variable {$name} you use: {$name|tolower}.
An example of how the modifiers can be used for a personalized mail is:
Hello {$name|escape},
Your name {$name|escape} is {$name|strlen} characters long.
Bye!Besides calling one modifier on a variable it is possible to chain modifiers.
E.g. you have name data. However, the strings containing names, are sometimes
capitalized and sometimes not. You want to use these names and you want to
be sure that a name starts with a capital and the rest of the name is in
lower case. Doing this is easy. You use {$name|tolower|ucfirst}. The first
modifier tolower, will make sure that the name is all in lower case. Then
modifier ucfirst is applied, which will capitalize the first character.
Note that if you call a modifier that does not exist, no effect takes place.
The following table lists all supported modifiers:
| Modifier | description |
|---|---|
| base64_encode | base64 encoder |
| base64_decode | base64 decoder |
| cat:"string" | concatenates a string to variable |
| count | count number of elements in variable |
| count_characters | count number of characters in a string |
| count_paragraphs | count number of paragraphs in a text (by counting newlines) |
| count_words | count number of words in a text |
| default:default value | use default value if variable is not set |
| empty | check whether a variable is empty |
| escape:"string" | escape html characters (or other chars) inside a string |
| indent:num = 1:char = " " | put num whitespaces in front of every line |
| md5 | perform md5 hashing |
| nl2br | replace newlines with html br tags |
| range:start = 0:end | truncate list to get the items between positions start and end |
| regex_replace:regex:replace_text | replace substrings using regular expression |
| replace:"string1":"string2" | replace occurrences of string1 with string2 |
| sha1 | perform sha1 hashing |
| sha256 | perform sha256 hashing |
| sha512 | sha512 hashing |
| spacify:separator = " " | place a separator between every input character |
| strlen | count the characters in a string |
| strstr:"substring":before = false | return the string starting from the first occurrence of substring if before = false. otherwise return the string until the first occurrence. |
| substr:start position:length | return the substring from start position onward, optionally truncated after length characters |
| tolower | convert all characters to lower case |
| toupper | convert all characters to upper case |
| trim | trim the white space and endline characters off both sides of the input |
| truncate:length = 80:etc = "...":break_words = false | truncate inputs that are longer than length and append etc at the end. break_words = true allows truncating parts of words |
| ucfirst | replace first character with an upper case character |
| urlencode | encode input for use in an url |
| urldecode | decode input for use in an url |
base64_encode
With this modifier you encode the data into base64. Note that this modifier does not have an effect on arrays. Usage:
The base64 encoding of {$name} is {$name|base64_encode}.base64_decode
With this modifier you can decode base64 encoded information. Usage:
The decoded information is {$base64encoded|base64_decode}cat
With this modefier you can concatenate a string to your variable. If the variable is an arrary, the string will be used. Usage:
{$name|cat:"string"}count
With this modifier you can count the number of elements in an array. If the variable is not an array a 0 will be returned. Usage:
{$names|count}count_characters
With this modifier you can count the number of characters in your text. If this modifier is called on an variable that contains an array, 0 is returned. Usage:
{$name|count_characters}count_paragraphs
With this modifier you can count the number of paragraphs in your text. If this modifier is applied on an array a 0 is returned. Usage:
The following text has {$text|count_paragraphs} paragraph.
Text:
{$text}count_words
With this modifier you can count the number of words in your text. If this modifier is applied on an array a 0 is returned. Usage:
"{$text}" has {$text|count_words} words.default
With this modifier you can set a default value that will be used if the value does not exist. Usage:
This will always show {$name|default:"something"}empty
With this modifier you can check if the variable is set or not. It will return true if the variable is set or false if it isn't. Usage:
{if $name|empty}
Dear customer,
{else}
Dear {$name},
{/if}escape
With this modifier you can escape, or encode, the variable. The form is: escape:"value". The possible values are: "html", "url", and "base64". If no value is specified "html" is used. On an array this modifier is ingored. Usage:
{$text|escape:"html"}
is equal to:
{$text|escape}indent
With this modifier you can add indentation to your text. You can specify the amount of indentation and the character(s) that is used for indentation. The syntax is indent:num:char, where "num" is the number of characters and "char" the character. The default of these is 1 and space respectively. On an array this modifier is ignored. Usage
{$text|indent:4:" "}md5
With this modifier you get the MD5 checksum of your text. If you use it on an array, the MD checksum is calculated over the entire array excluding the keys. Usage:
{$text|md5}nl2br
This modifier replaces your newlines with the equivalent HTML br tags. This enables you to write plain text that will be truncated in html mode. On an array this value is ignored. Usage:
{$text|nl2br}range
With this modifier you can take a range form your input if your input is an array. The form is range:start:end, where start is the start position and end is the exclusive end position. If the variable is not an array, the value will be ignored. Usage:
{$array|range:2:5}regex_replace
With this modifier you can replace parts of your text, base on a regular expression, with other text. If the variable is an array this value will be ignored. Usage
This will replace each number in the variable string with the string " a number "
{$text|regex_replace:"\d":" a number "}replace
With modifier replace you can replace a part of your text with some other text. The syntax is: replace:"string1":"string2", where all occurrences of "string1" will be replaced by "string2". When the variable is an array, this modifier does not have an effect. Usage:
{$text|replace:"hi":"hello"}sha1
With this modifier you get the SHA1 hash of your text. If the variable is an array the SHA1 hash will be calculated over the entire array, excluding the keys. Usage:
{$text|sha1}sha256
With this modifier you get the SHA256 hash of your text. If the variable is an array the SHA256 hash will be calculated over the entire array, excluding the keys. Usage:
{$text|sha256}sha512
With this modifier you get the SHA512 hash of your text. If the variable is an array the SHA512 hash will be calculated over the entire array, excluding the keys. Usage:
{$text|sha512}spacify
With this modifier you can add a character, or characters, between each character in your variable. The syntax is spacify:separator, where the default separator is space. If the variable is an array the modifier will be ignored. Usage:
{$text|spacify:"."}strlen
With this modifier the length of the text in a variable can be obtained. If the variable is an array a 0 will be returned. Usage:
{$text|strlen}strstr
With this modifier you can search for a string in you variable and get the first occurrence plus the rest of your variable, or you can get everything in the variable till the searched string. The syntax is: strstr:string:before, where string is the searched string, and before is a boolean, default = false. If the boolean is true, you get what is in the variable before the first occurrence of string. If it is false you get what is in the variable from the first occurrence of string onwards. If the variable is an array the modifier is ignored. Usage:
If the variable holds "Hello world!", this will print Hello, {$variable|strstr:" ":true}
and this will print world!, {$variable|strstr:"w":false}, just like this
{$variable|strstr:"w"}substr
With this modifier you can obtain a substring from you variable. The syntax is substr:start:length, where start is the starting position in the string (zero indexed) and length is the length you want to obtain. The default for length is the the length of the string minus the starting position. Usage:
If the variable is "0123456789" this will print 2 to 9
{$variable|substr:2}
and this will print 456
{$variable|substr:4:3}tolower
With this modifier you can change all character in your text to lowercase characters. Usage:
{$text|tolower}toupper
With this modifier you can change all characters in your text to uppercase characters. Usage:
The next part looks like it is shouted {$text|toupper}trim
With this modifier you can trim trailing white space and new line characters from your text. The characters that are trimmed are: spaces, tabs, newlines, carriage returns, vertical tabs, and end of strings. Usage:
{$text}truncate
With this modifier it is possible to truncate your text to a certain length. If the text is truncated it is possible to add some characters to indicate that the text is truncated. These extra characters are counted for the truncation length as well. You can also specify whether it is allowed to break words or not. The syntax is: truncate:length:etc:break_words, where length has a default of 80, etc (the replacement), has a default of ... and break_words has as default false.
Usage:
{$text|truncate:50:"....":true}ucfirst
With this modifier you replace the first character of your text with an uppercase character. Usage:
{$name|ucfirst}urlencode
With this modifier you can url encode your text. Usage:
{$text|urlencode}urldecode
With this modifier you can url decode your text. Usage:
{$text|urldecode}
