Determine the current output format from templates, partials, and shortcodes

support
1

I’d really benefit from being able to reach any kind of higher-order context from a shortcode. In particular, I have a shortcode that should render nothing if the current output format is RSS/Atom but even if I set such a format on the .Scratch there’s no way to read the scratch from the shortcode.

Example:

In layouts/_default/baseof.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
{{- .Scratch.Set "output-format" "html" }}

In layouts/list.atom.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
{{- .Scratch.Set "output-format" "atom" }}

Then in various templates, partials, and shortcodes I’d like to be able to branch based on the value of “output-format” in the scratch, like:

{{ if eq ($.Scratch.Get "output-format") "html" }}
  …
{{ end }}

So far I’ve failed to figure out how to do this from shortcodes, where the scratch is always unset

2

If you want to reach the page context from within a shortcode, you need to use the .Page method.

For example, to retrieve the page title from within a shortcode:

{{ .Page.Title }}

The $ gets you to the root context of the current template, not the page.

3

Thanks, that helps! I’m now able to access the scratch from shortcodes.

Unfortunately, now I’ve hit the next snag I’ve hit every time I’ve tried to use the scratch: the value for the scratch seems to be wrong.

In my Atom feed, where (at the top), the Scratch "output-format" is set to "atom", pages that contain something like this:

{{< foo.inline >}}{{ .Page.Scratch.Get "output-format" }}{{< /foo.inline >}}

Will print "html" and not "atom" in my /index.xml file. This doesn’t make sense to me, since the "html" is only set on the scratch in layouts/_default/baseof.html, which isn’t the template being rendered. I ran into this same problem in a totally different context trying to branch templating behavior based on Scratch behaviors and it made me feel like compilation of partial templates is being memoized or something.

4

Wait a second…

Are you trying to set a page level scratch, using the same identifier, to two different values for the same page?

5

What I’m trying to accomplish is if-else branches in templates and shortcodes based on whether an HTML file is being rendered or my RSS feed. Because there’s (AFAICT), no built-in variable or method to report the currently-rendered output format, I’m trying to set it in the scratch.

To try to achieve this, I am setting a .Scratch.Set "output-format" "atom" from the top of my Atom feed list.atom.xml file and setting .Scratch.Set "output-format" "html" from the top of my layouts/_default/baseof.html file. Goal being to be able to branch inside templates/partials/shortcodes based on output format (e.g. {{- if eq (.Page.Scratch.Get "output-format") "html" -}} )

6

Sorry, still trying to get the bigger picture. Are you including .Content in your RSS feed?

7

Yep! Something like this for each entry:

<content type="html">{{ "<![CDATA[" | safeHTML }}
  {{ .Content | safeHTML }}
{{ "]]>" | safeHTML}}</content>
8

So, the only thing that will affect .Content is the content of the markdown files, and any shortcodes that they may call. Is that also correct?

9

Yes, if I understand you right. It’s why I’m trying to set some kind of higher order variable like a scratch so that the .Content will render differently based on whether the overall file being rendered is an HTML file or my Atom/XML feed

10

The current main reason why this is is that we reuse, especially, rendered content, across output formats if possible. If you had 2 output formats (HTML + RSS), 10K markdown files and 10 languages that would need to render 200K markdown files if we couldn’t reuse anything.

11

You’ll need to do this:

layouts/shortcodes/
├── foo.html
└── foo.rss

And in markdown:

{{< foo >}}
1 Like
12

I suspected this would be it. Thanks for clarifying!

13

Thanks, that’ll work! In my case leaving transcript.html as-is and an empty transcript.atom.xml is working as you’d hope and the right layout is calling the right one.

Thanks!

14

Also, in your rss template I would do:

{{ $content := trim .Content "\r\n"}}
<content type="html">
  {{ printf "<![CDATA[%q]]>" $content  | safeHTML }}
</content>

It’s a bit easier to read, and will strip leading and trailing newlines regardless of OS EOL format.

15

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