How to display pm notifications in a custom template?

[Hilary]

Hi,

I've registered a custom template to include inside the header template with

{vb:raw mytemplate}

. It works... the

<vb:if condition="$show['member']">

condition inside mytemplate works, too. But

<vb:if condition="$notifications_total">

doesn't.

So if I put this code in mytemplate -

<vb:if condition="$notifications_total"><div>there are notifications</div>
<vb:else /><div>no notifications here</div>
</vb:if>

I always see 'no notifications here'.

The exact same code in the header template works as expected.

Does anyone know a solution for this?

[Lynne]

You will need to register the variable $notifications_total for use in your custom template.

Cellarius wrote a really good article that you may be interested in - [vB4] Rendering templates and registering variables - a short guide

[Hilary]

Hi Lynne! Thanks for the swift response.

I've just been reading through that thread, and I'm really glad to find you're still posting here.

I found this example code there:

$templater = vB_Template::create('memberbar_member_basic');
$memberbar_member_basic = $templater->render();
vB_Template::preRegister('navbar', array('notifications_menubits' => $notifications_menubits));
vB_Template::preRegister('navbar', array('memberbar_member_basic' => $memberbar_member_basic));
vB_Template::preRegister('navbar', array('notifications_menubits' => $notifications_menubits));

...looks like exactly what I want to do, displaying notifications in a custom template, though the op mentions it has a mistake and doesn't say what the mistake is (besides perhaps the duplicated line)...

So I took my existing plugin...

$templater = vB_Template::create('ubermenu');
$ubermenu = $templater->render();
vB_Template::preRegister('header', array('ubermenu' => $ubermenu));

and tried adding to it -

$templater = vB_Template::create('ubermenu');
$ubermenu = $templater->render();
vB_Template::preRegister('header', array('notifications_menubits' => $notifications_menubits));
vB_Template::preRegister('header', array('notifications_total' => $notifications_total));
vB_Template::preRegister('header', array('ubermenu' => $ubermenu));

No luck. Then thought this made no sense, since notifications already work in the header, it's the 'ubermenu' template that needs to know about them, so tried

vB_Template::preRegister('ubermenu', array('notifications_total' => $notifications_total));

etc instead, both in that plugin and in a separate one. Still no luck.

Help?

[MarkFL]

First, you may combine the 3 lines:

PHP Code:

vB_Template::preRegister('header', array('notifications_menubits' => $notifications_menubits));
vB_Template::preRegister('header', array('notifications_total' => $notifications_total));
vB_Template::preRegister('header', array('ubermenu' => $ubermenu)); 


as follows:

PHP Code:

vB_Template::preRegister('header', array('notifications_menubits' => $notifications_menubits, 'notifications_total' => $notifications_total, 'ubermenu' => $ubermenu)); 


However, I am thinking this is more along the lines of what you want to do:

PHP Code:

$templater = vB_Template::create('ubermenu');
    $templater->register('notifications_menubits', $notifications_menubits);
    $templater->register('notifications_total', $notifications_total);
$ubermenu = $templater->render();
vB_Template::preRegister('header', array('ubermenu' => $ubermenu)); 


This way you are registering the two variables your "ubermenu" template needs to render its output correctly, and then you can register that output (stored in $ubermenu) for use in the header template.

[Hilary]

Thank you.

I'm sure you're right.

**EDIT**

Er, let me just delete everything I wrote before I found the stray ' in the code . I still haven't got it working, but I'll post a better update after I've tested a few more things.

--------------- Added [DATE]1461490554[/DATE] at [TIME]1461490554[/TIME] ---------------

Sorry to say that this -

$templater = vB_Template::create('ubermenu');
        $templater->register('notifications_menubits', $notifications_menubits);
        $templater->register('notifications_total', $notifications_total);
$ubermenu = $templater->render();
vB_Template::preRegister('header', array('ubermenu' => $ubermenu));

- definitely doesn’t work.

I replaced my whole ubermenu template with the original notifications code, and finally with

<div><vb:if condition="$notifications_total">There are notifications<vb:else />Yes, we have no notifications</vb:if>
<ul>{vb:raw notifications_menubits}</ul></div>

It always displays the 'no notifications' option (and I'm logged in, and have loads of notifications, which show up fine in the default skin), and doesn't display the notifications_menubits at all. IOW, the presence or absence of those two 'register' lines in the plugin makes no difference to the result.

[MarkFL]

What hook location are you using for your plugin?

[Hilary]

parse_templates

(I tried 'global_start' first, but the template didn't appear at all.)

[MarkFL]

Try "global_setup_complete"...

[Hilary]

Nope - template disappears altogether again.

[MarkFL]

Okay, here's my workaround:

The "mytemplate" template:

<div>
	<vb:if condition="$notifications_total">
		there are notifications
	<vb:else />
		no notifications here
	</vb:if>
</div>

The plugin, hooked at "process_templates_complete":

PHP Code:

$templater = vB_Template::create('mytemplate');
    $templater->register('notifications_menubits', $notifications_menubits);
    $templater->register('notifications_total', $notifications_total);
$ubermenu = $templater->render();

$header = str_replace('{ubermenu}', $ubermenu, $header); 


Now, in your "header" template, put the string "{ubermenu}" wherever you want the rendering of "mytemplate" to appear.