Data objects in templates

Questions
1

Silverstripe Version: 4

Question:
How do I use data from a ModelAdmin::get() in a template?

In the site I’m migrating, I use to do this in a controller:

$content_blocks = ContentBlock::get();

$data = [];

foreach ($content_blocks as $block)
{
    $data[$block->Name] = $block;
}

Which gives me an indexed array of objects.

Then in the view: echo $content['intro']->content;

This content is distributed throughout the page so a loop won’t work. The key of “intro” etc are known so I can simply output them manually where I need them.

Full controller

use SilverStripe\CMS\Controllers\ContentController;

class PageController extends ContentController
{
    private static $allowed_actions = [];

    protected function init()
    {
        parent::init();

        $content_blocks = ContentBlock::get();

        $data = [];

        foreach ($content_blocks as $block)
        {
            $data[$block->Name] = $block;
        }

        return $this->customise(['data'=> $data])->renderWith("Page");
    }
}

I realise I can’t do the output like that in SS as it doesn’t allow PHP in templates.
So I tried to use ArrayList and ArrayData but I can’t seem to set the keys - making it useless in the view. That attempt is:

use SilverStripe\CMS\Controllers\ContentController;
use SilverStripe\ORM\ArrayList;
use SilverStripe\View\ArrayData;

class PageController extends ContentController
{
    private static $allowed_actions = [];

    protected function init()
    {
        parent::init();

        $content_blocks = ContentBlock::get();

        $data = new ArrayList();

        foreach ($content_blocks as $block)
        {
            $data->push(
                new ArrayData([
                    'Name' => $block->Name,
                    'Title' => $block->Title,
                    'Content' => $block->Content
                ])
            );
        }

       return $this->customise(['data'=> $data])->renderWith("Page");
    }
}

I also read that it might be better to set this data as a class property, and write a seperate accessor function in the controller to get the data out of it. I tried that and it couldn’t access the function even when it was in $allowed_actions. Perhaps because it’s in PageController. Is this controller special or something?

Help greatly appreciated. Problems I’m having seem like the most basic I can think of but I’m struggling to find much info anywhere.

2

Does your object “ContentBlock” have a forTemplate() function?

3

No it doesn’t. It’s got just about nothing in there:

use SilverStripe\ORM\DataObject;

class ContentBlock extends DataObject
{
	private static $table_name = 'Blocks';

	private static $db = [
		'Name' => 'Varchar',
		'Title' => 'Varchar',
		'Content' => 'HTMLText'
	];

	private static $summary_fields = [
		'Name' => 'Name',
		'Title' => 'Title'
	];
}
4

Frustratingly, it seems like this whole line:

return $this->customise(['data'=> $data, 'SomeThing' => 'Bingo'])->renderWith("Page");

Does nothing in my PageController file. I use $Something in the Page.ss file expecting to see “Bingo” but there’s nothing.

I’ve read that controllers will autoload a file that matches the naming convention so I assume that is what is happening.

5

If you really want to loop over all ContentBlocks without a filter, you probably don’t need anything in your Controller. I’m working from memory but I think you could just put this in your template:

<% loop $List('ContentBlock') %>
    <p><b>Name</b>$Name</p>
    <p><b>Title</b>$Title</p>
    $Content
<% end_loop %>

It’s more realistic that you’ll want to return only some of them so then you could use an accessor function. You don’t need to mention that in allowed_actions as it’s not a url action. Try deleting your custom init method on your PageController then put this in your controller:

public function ContentBlocks()
{
    return ContentBlock::get();
}

and put this in your Page.ss template:

<% loop $ContentBlocks %>
    <p><b>Name</b>$Name</p>
    <p><b>Title</b>$Title</p>
    $Content
<% end_loop %>
6

p.s. Have you checked out the SilverStripe Lessons? They go over concepts like this and I think they’re pretty great.

7

Thanks Jono,

No I don’t want to loop these at all. As mentioned in the first post: “This content is distributed throughout the page so a loop won’t work. The key of “intro” etc are known so I can simply output them manually where I need them.”

I want to get them in an associative structure and access them as I need them. I’m surprised this is such a mission… it’s the most basic function of any framework isn’t? Get some data from a database and expose it to a view.

I’ve tried an even more simple version of your function:

public function ContentBlocks() { return 'Hello world'; }

in the template

<h1>$ContentBlocks - test</h1>

I do a dev/build just 'cos and I see nothing.

8

Yes I have done all the lessons. They don’t cover this sort of thing at all.

9

It sounds like the template you’re editing isn’t the one that’s being rendered. Try adding some config to see which templates are being used: Template debugging – SilverStripe Documentation

10

Once you get your template rendering from your controller okay, try this in your init method (if I understand correctly now):

$customPageProperties = [];
foreach ($content_blocks as $block)
{
    $customPageProperties[$block->SomeUniqueKey] = $block;
}
return $this->customise($customPageProperties);

Note that you’re passing a simple keyed array to the customise method, and you don’t need to call renderWith. That should let you access each individual block by the key you set.

11

I can see the template it’s loading is Page.ss in /app/src/templates.

I changed my /app/_config/app.yml to:

SilverStripe\Core\Manifest\ModuleManifest:
  project: app
SilverStripe\View\SSViewer:
  source_file_comments: true

and did a ?flush and I don’t see anything on the page or in the console?

I did a quick test without all the data stuff with just:

return $this->customise(['data'=> $data, 'please' => 'WORK']);

and using $please in the view, I don’t see WORK… gah.

12

So it turns out all my problems of loading a template, renderWith() and customise() being ignored is soley due to me doing all this in the PageController::init(). :man_facepalming:

I’ve moved this code into PageController::index() and it works as expected.

Also, sending the associative array data to the view is simple and doesn’t need all the ArrayList and ArrayData guff as @JonoM showed.

For future users, this is all I did:

Controller:

use SilverStripe\CMS\Controllers\ContentController;

class PageController extends ContentController
{
	private static $allowed_actions = [];

    protected function init()
    {
        parent::init();
    }

	public function index()
	{
		$content_blocks = ContentBlock::get();

		foreach ($content_blocks as $block)
		{
			$tmp[$block->Name] = $block;
		}

		return $this->customise(['Title' => 'Some page title','data' => $tmp])->renderWith('Painful');
	}
}

Then in the view to use it: $data.intro.Title, $data.intro.Content, $data.key.value

Thanks for looking.

1 Like
13

Glad you sorted it out Lance.