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What is getResources?

A general purpose Resource listing and summarization snippet.

Requirements

  • MODX Revolution 2.0.0-beta5 or later
  • PHP5 or later

History

getResources was first written by Jason Coward (opengeek) and released on June 30th, 2009.

Download

It can be downloaded from within the MODX Revolution manager via Package Management, or from the MODX Extras Repository, here: https://modx.com/extras/package/getresources

It is NOT a replacement for Ditto, but rather an alternative component that can accomplish some of the things that the more specialized components do, i.e. Ditto, Wayfinder, Breadcrumbs; basically anything that output the properties for a list of Resources (formerly Documents in MODX Evolution).

Documentation and tutorials on Russian can be found here: http://modx.by/docs/modx-add-ons/getresources/

Usage

The getResources snippet can be called using the tag:

[[getResources]]

Prior to version 1.6.1-pl, calls without the &tpl property specified will output an array of each Resource in the result set, and its fields. Since version 1.6.1-pl this behaviour has changed and you will have to use "&debug=1" to get the full result:

[[getResources? &debug=`1`]]
[[getResources? &parents=`choose_an_id` &debug=`1`]]

Available Properties

Templating Properties

Name Description Default Value Added in version
tpl Name of a chunk serving as a resource template. If not provided, properties are dumped to output for each resource
tplOdd Name of a chunk serving as resource template for resources with an odd idx value (see idx property)
tplFirst Name of a chunk serving as resource template for the first resource
tplLast Name of a chunk serving as resource template for the last resource
tpl_N Name of a chunk serving as resource template for the Nth resource, for example &tpl_4=tpl4th
tpl_nN Name of a chunk serving as resource template for every Nth resource, for example &tpl_n4=tpl4th would apply to any item divisible by 4 1.4.1
tplCondition Defines a field of the resource to evaluate against keys defined in the &conditionalTpls property. Must be a resource field; does not work with Template Variables. 1.5.0
conditionalTpls A JSON object defining a map of field values and the associated tpl Chunks to use when the field defined by &tplCondition matches the value : &conditionalTpls={"1":"tplA","2":"tplB","3":"tplC"} [NOTE: tplOdd, tplFirst, tplLast, * and tpl_{n} will take precedence over any defined conditionalTpls] 1.5.0
tplPath An optional directory to look for file-based chunks when using @FILE assets_path+ "elements/chunks/"
tplWrapper Name of a chunk serving as a wrapper template for the output [NOTE: Does not work with toSeparatePlaceholders]. The placeholder where the items are inserted is [[+output]]. 1.6.0
wrapIfEmpty If true, will output the wrapper specified in &tplWrapper even if the output is empty. false 1.6.0
outputSeparator An optional string to separate each tpl instance (delimiter) "\n"
toPlaceholder If set, will assign the result to this placeholder instead of outputting it directly.
toSeparatePlaceholders If set, will assign EACH result to a separate placeholder named by this param suffixed with a sequential number (starting from 0). 1.3.0

About @FILE and @INLINE tpls:

You can prefix any tpl property with @FILE or @INLINE to use a file-based chunk or inline markup respectively.

  • @FILE— This prefix allows you to provide a file instead of a Chunk in the database as the tpl. The path and filename you specify will by default, unless you specify a custom tplPath property, search for the @FILE tpl relative to your configured assets_path + elements/chunks/.
  • @INLINE— This prefix allows you to provide markup to use for your tpl directly in the property value. It is recommended you use this only when specifying the tpl* properties in a [Property Set], otherwise any placeholders in your inline markup may be evaluated before the content gets passed to getResources, since cacheable nested tags in MODX Revolution are evaluated before processing of the containing tag begins. This must be followed by a space, e.g. @INLINE [[+pagetitle]]

Selection Properties

Name Description Default Value Added in version
parents Comma-delimited list of ids serving as parents. Use -1 to ignore parents when specifying _resources_to include. If this is not done, getResources assumes &parents as the current resource and reads its children from there (plus the resources given in &resources = unexpected results). current Resource id
resources Comma-delimited list of ids to include in the results. Prefix an id with a dash to exclude the resource from the result.
depth Integer value indicating depth to search for resources from each parent. First level of resources beneath parent is depth 10
tvFilters Can be used to filter resources by certain TV values. These are entered as [( tvname)( operator)]( value). There are two delimiters you can use to combine filter conditions. You can have "OR" filters using two pipe symbols. An OR filter fetches resources that has one of the listed TV values. See below for more information.
sortby Any Resource Field (excluding Template Variables. See below for the 'sortbyTV' property). Some common fields to sort on are publishedon, menuindex, pagetitle etc, but see the Resources documentation for all fields. Specify fields with the name only, not using the tag syntax. Note that when using fields like template, publishedby and the likes for sorting, it will be sorted on the raw values, so the template or user ID, and NOT their names. See below for more information. createdon
publishedon Modified in 1.3.0
sortbyAlias Query alias for sortby field
sortbyEscaped Escapes the field name specified in sortby
sortdir Order which to sort by DESC
sortbyTV Template Variable to sort by 1.2.0
sortdirTV Order which to sort by when using sortbyTV DESC 1.2.0
sortbyTVType Specify the data type of the sortby TV. Possible values are string, integer, decimal, datetime string 1.3.0
limit Limits the number of resources returned. Use 0 for unlimited results. 5
offset An offset of resources returned by the criteria to skip 0
where A JSON-style expression of criteria to build any additional where clauses from. See below for an example. See xPDOQuery.where
context Comma-delimited list of context keys to limit results by; if empty, contexts for all specified parents will be used (all contexts if 0 is specified)
Using &tvFilters

For the &tvFilters, the value may look like this:

   mytv==somevalue||mytv==othervalue

You can also use an "and" filter using a comma. This will make sure that all the conditions are met.

   mytv==somevalue,othertv==othervalue

For advanced filtering you can also group these. It is important to know that conditions are first separated based on the OR (||) delimiter, and after that on the AND (,) delimiter. So let's take this hypothetical example:

   mytv==foo||mytv==bar,bartv==3||bartv==1

This will filter resources to meet one of the following conditions:

  • mytv is LIKE foo, or
  • mytv is LIKE bar AND bartv is LIKE 3, or
  • bartv is LIKE 1

The examples above search for exact values. You can also use the percentage sign (%) as a wildcard. For example:

   mytv==%a%

Matches any resources that has an "a" in the mytv value.

   mytv==a%

Matches any resources that have a mytv value that starts with an "a"

   mytv==%a

Matches any resources that have a mytv value that ends with an "a".

You can also combine this with the OR (||) and AND (,) delimiters explained above.

It is important to know that this function looks at the raw value of a template variablefor a specific resource. This means that the value has been explicitly set for the resource, and that it has not been processed by a template variable output type (or is the default value in releases prior to 1.4.2-pl; this release adds support for filtering that includes default values). So if you have an "autotag" tv, this means the raw value is a comma delimited list, and it is not split up in tags like you see it in the manager.

New filter operators available in 1.4.2-pl:

Starting with release 1.4.2-pl of getResources, there are a number of new comparison operators for use when creating filter conditions. In addition, when using many of these new operators, numeric comparison values are automatically CAST TV values to numeric before comparison.

Here is a list of the valid operators:

Filter Operator SQL Operator CASTs numerics Notes
<=> <=> Yes NULL safe equals
=== = Yes
!== != Yes
<> <> Yes
== LIKE No
!= NOT LIKE No
<< < Yes
<= <= Yes
=< =< Yes
>> > Yes
>= >= Yes
=> => Yes
Using &sortby

It's possible to pass any resource field as sort value, such as pagetitle, alias, publishedon, menuindex, etc.

You can sort randomly by specifying RAND(), like so:

&sortby=`RAND()`

From version 1.3.0 this can also be a JSON array to sort on multiple fields, e.g.

&sortby=`{"publishedon":"ASC","createdon":"DESC"}`

To sort in a specific order, specify a resource id-list, e.g.

&sortby=`FIELD(modResource.id, 4,7,2,5,1 )`

The same thing is possible if you put the sorted IDs in a template variable, like this:

&sortby=`FIELD(modResource.id,[[*templateVariable]])`

In some cases you need to (somewhat counterintuitively) specify the sort direction as well:

&sortby=`FIELD(modResource.id, 4,7,2,5,1 )` &sortdir=`ASC`

Other Properties

Name Description Default Value Added in version
showUnpublished If true, will also show Resources if they are unpublished. 0
showDeleted If true, will also show Resources regardless if they are deleted. 0
showHidden If true, will show Resources regardless if they are hidden from the menus. 0
hideContainers If set, will not show any Resources marked as a container (isfolder). 0
includeContent Indicates if the content of each resource should be returned in the results 0
includeTVs Indicates if TemplateVar values should be included in the properties available to each resource template 0
includeTVList An optional comma-delimited list of TemplateVar names to include explicitly if includeTVs is 1 1.4.0
prepareTVs Prepares media source-dependant TemplateVar values. 1 1.5.0
prepareTVList Limits the TVs that are prepared to those specified by name in a comma-delimited list 1.5.0
processTVs Indicates if TemplateVar values should be rendered as they would on the resource being summarized. TemplateVars must be included (see includeTVs/includeTVList) to be processed. 0
processTVList An optional comma-delimited list of TemplateVar names to process explicitly. TemplateVars specified here must be included via includeTVs/includeTVList 1.4.0
tvPrefix The prefix for TemplateVar properties tv.
idx You can define the starting idx of the resources, which is an property that is incremented as each resource is rendered 1
first Define the idx which represents the first resource 1
last Define the idx which represents the last resource. Default is # of resources being summarized + first - 1
totalVar Define the key of a placeholder set by getResources indicating the total number of Resources that would be selected notconsidering the _limit_value. total
debug If true, will send the SQL query to the MODX log. false

Available Placeholders

The placeholders available to your getResources formatting Chunks are mostly dependent on the resources that you are iterating over.

See All Tags on the "Commonly Used Template Tags" page – that lists the properties available to all resources.

If your resource has template variables, those will have corresponding placeholders (remember the placeholders will use the prefix defined by the &tvPrefixparameter).

In addition there are the following placeholders:

Placeholder Description
[[+idx]] Increases with each iteration, starting with 1 (or the value set by the &idx parameter)

Examples

Also see the Examples sub section of this documentation for more detailed examples and tutorials.

Output a list of child Resources of the current Resource, using the 'myRowTpl' chunk:

[[getResources? &parents=`[[*id]]` &tpl=`myRowTpl`]]

Output all resources beneath the Resource with ID '5', with the exception of resource 10, using the 'myRowTpl' chunk:

[[getResources? &parents=`5` &resources=`-10` &tpl=`myRowTpl`]]

Output only the resources specified, using the 'myRowTpl' chunk:

[[getResources? &parents=`-1` &resources=`10,11,12` &tpl=`myRowTpl`]]

Output the top 5 latest published Resources beneath the Resource with ID '5', with tpl 'blogPost':

[[getResources? &parents=`5` &limit=`5` &tpl=`blogPost` &includeContent=`1`]]

Output a list of child Resources of the current Resource, based on the Resource-template:

[[getResources? &parents=`[[*id]]` &where=`{"template:=":8}` &tpl=`myRowTpl`]]

Output a list of child Resources of the current Resource, where the Resource-template ID is 1 or 2:

[[getResources? &parents=`[[*id]]` &where=`{"template:=":1, "OR:template:=":2}` &tpl=`myRowTpl`]]

Output a list of child Resources of the current Resource, where the Resource-template ID is 1, 2 or 3 (you cannot use the same key name more than once):

[[getResources? &parents=`[[*id]]` &where=`{"template:IN":[1,2,3]}` &tpl=`myRowTpl`]]

Display a message when no results found (equivalent of "empty" parameter in Ditto):

[[getResources:default=`No results found`? &parents=`[[*id]]` &tpl=`myRowTpl`]]

Example using an inline Tpl

[[getResources? &tpl=`@INLINE <li title="[[+longtitle]]">[[+pagetitle]]</li>`]]

Wrapping a getResources result in other markup (like an &outerTpl property, which doesn't exist for getResources from version 1.6.0 you can still do it like that or use the &tplWrapper property).

[[getResources? ... &toPlaceholder=`results`]]
[[+results:notempty=`<ol>[[+results]]</ol>`]]

Displaying Template Variables with getResources

To reduce retrieval time, getResources does not get TV values by default. If you want to display TVs, you should include the following parameters:

&includeTVs=`1` &processTVs=`1`

You also need to either prefix all TVs with tv. or use this parameter in your snippet tag:

&tvPrefix=``

In the Tpl chunk you use to display the getResources output, use a placeholder tag like this (but with the name of your TV):

[[+tv.my_tv]]

Using getPage for Pagination

When combined with getPage (or pdoPage), getResources allows you to do powerful and flexible pagination on your pages.

Examples

Grab first 10 Resources - sorted by publishedon - below the Resource ID 17, no more than 2 levels deep, with the tpl 'blogListPost', including the TVs and content:

[[!getPage?
    &elementClass=`modSnippet`
    &element=`getResources`
    &parents=`17`
    &depth=`2`
    &limit=`10`
    &pageVarKey=`page`
    &includeTVs=`1`
    &includeContent=`1`
    &tpl=`blogListPost`
]]
<div class="paging">
    <ul class="pageList">
        [[!+page.nav]]
    </ul>
</div>

and the chunk blogListPost:

<div class="blogPost">
    <div class="date">[[+publishedon:strtotime:date=`%b %d %Y`]]</div>
    <h2><a href="[[~[[+id]]]]" title="[[+pagetitle]]">[[+pagetitle]]</a></h2>
    <p class="author">
        <strong>Author:</strong>
        <span class="author">[[+createdby:userinfo=`username`]]</span>
    </p>
    <p class="summary">[[+introtext]]</p>
    <p class="readmore">
        <a href="[[~[[+id]]]]"><span>Read more</span></a>
    </p>
    <div class="clear"></div>
</div>
<hr/>

Troubleshooting

Nothing Happens

Before you go banging your head on a wall, have you checked to make sure that this extra is actually installed on your site?

Array of Attributes is Dumped

You forgot to include the &tpl parameter. Without the &tpl parameter, the Snippet will retrieve the specified resources, but you didn't tell it how to format them. Be sure you include the &tpl parameter in your Snippet call, e.g.

[[!getResources? &parents=`5` &limit=`5` &tpl=`blogPost`]]

Or, perhaps you misspelled the chunk name. Perhaps you DO have a &tpl specified, but does that chunk actually exist? If you name a chunk that does not exist, getResources will not know how to format your results.

Or, even though you have correctly specified the &tpl parameter, you may have inadvertently forgotten the ampersand on one of your _other_parameters. E.g.

limit=`5`

will cause the Snippet call to fail and the attributes to be dumped. The correct format should be

&limit=`5`

The same resource is output multiple times (1.2.2 and prior releases)

If you see the same resource listed multiple times, then try omitting the &sortbyTV parameter.

The Content isn't There

You are retrieving the correct resources and you are seeing _some_of the results formatting correctly, but your [[+content]] placeholders don't contain anything. What's going on? You must include the &includeContent=1 argument to get the content.

Caching problems using tpl, tpl_N, tpl_nN, tplFirst, tplLast or tplOdd

If you are using this parameters you may have thought about reusing your tpl chunk to avoid repeating code. For example:

Generic Tpl Chunk: [[$GenericTplChunk]]

<div>Hi [[+pagetitle]]</div>

Fourth Tpl Chunk ( tpl_nN): [[$4thTplChunk]]

<div class="highlight">[[$GenericTplChunk]]</div>

If you have problems with this, having blank or strange results, is due to MODX caching. Calling the chunk uncached won't work. You have to use a trick: a dummy tag when calling the generic chunk.

<div class="highlight">[[$GenericTplChunk? &idx=`[[+idx]]` ]]</div>

Note: You don't need to call the chunk uncached.

Seen at: http://forums.modx.com/thread/43748/chunk-inside-getresources-template-not-processed-correctly

See Also

If you only need to get a single field from a foreign resource, try using getResourceField.