5.7. New data formats
5.7.2. Container items
5.7.1. Variables
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5.7.2. Container items

The data formats allow you to control the access to the container subitems, for example $container.subitem. They are programmed similarly to ordinary variables.

The snippets described above are also used in sections: $sectionName.sectionItem.

Configuration

The variable access snippets are located in the item group, so you must add it to $_supports field in your data format. Furthermore, you need to set up the property variable:assign. It is a boolean value that controls whether your data format supports assignments of a new value to the variables. Another property is item:useReference that should be set to true if the item value can be accessed via reference, similarly to variable:useReference.

Reading the values

Similarly to variables, reading the value is performed with the item:main snippet. It should return a piece of expression that reads the value. The item name is provided in the item format variable. OPT concatenates the pieces coming from all the items creating a container call, so the snippet must form a valid PHP even then:

    case 'item:main':
        return '->readItem(\''.$this->_getVar('item').'\')';

Note that the snippet begins with an object call ->. Let's take a look at a sample container call: $container.item. The first part, $container is processed with variable:main snippet, giving us something like that $this->_data['container'] in the default data format. Then, .item is processed with our data format and item:main snippet that gives ->readItem('item'). The final code is $this->_data['container']->readItem('item').

It is up to programmer to validate the variable before choosing the data format.

Modifying the variable values

It is performed with item:assign snippet similarly to variable:item:

    case 'item:assign':
        return '->saveItem(\''.$this->_getVar('item').'\', '.$this->_getVar('value').')';
5.7.2. Container items
5.7. New data formats
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5.7.1. Variables
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5.7.3. Sections