Thread

Hi all

I’m working on an EE site using Michael Boyink’s excellent Building an ExpressionEngine 2 Site as a guide. I have several template groups set up which follow the section structure of the site (technical-information, water-supplies, news, etc). There’s some template code repetition between the technical-information and water-supplies index template; I’m thinking that for the navigation menu within each section it could be possible to use a more DRY approach. The current template code for the technical-information index template is:

{embed="embeds/html_header"}

{embed="embeds/page_header"}
 
 
 <div class="main-menu-outer">
  <div class="main-menu-centered">
   <ul class="main-menu-basic main-menu-advanced">
          
          {exp:channel:entries channel="technical_information" disable="categories|member_data|pagination" dynamic="no" sort="asc" offset="1"}
          <li{if count == total_results} class="last"{/if}>
           <a href="http://{path=">{title}</a>
          </li>
          {/exp:channel:entries}
          
      </ul>
  </div>
 </div>
 
 <div id="main-content">
  {exp:channel:entries channel="technical_information" disable="categories|member_data|pagination" sort="asc" limit="1"}
   <h1>{standard_main_page_heading}</h1>...

The menu code inside <div class=“main-menu-outer”> is repeated in the water-supplies index template but with {exp:channel:entries channel="water_supplies"

This works fine but if there is a way of replacing "technical_information" with some code that automatically inserts the channel of the current entry being viewed, I could move the code into the {embed="embeds/page_header"} and have it in just one template file.

I’ve not found any info on the possibility or otherwise of pulling the current entry channel into EE code dynamically. Is it possible or should I just stick with the current solution?

Thanks in advance for your help

I made a mistake in the original anchor code which messed up when I posted, the corrected code I’ve written is:

<a href="http://{path=technical-information}/{url_title}">{title}</a>

you can use channel-id or channel_short_name see:

http://ellislab.com/expressionengine/user-guide/modules/channel/channel_entries.html#channel-id

channel_id is a variable that is used inside an exp:channel:entries call.

Since you are using dynamic =  no it will not be relevant to the page you are on. However not using dynamic=no will only return the current page you are on in your nav list.

If your site has a standard url structure of /template/url_title then you could just use a segment variable.

{exp:channel:entries channel="{segment_1}" disable="categories|member_data|pagination" dynamic="no" sort="asc" offset="1"}
  <li{if count == total_results} class="last"{/if}>
    <a href="http://{site_url}{segment_1}/{url_title}">{title}</a>
  </li>
{/exp:channel:entries}

That’s brilliant Phil. I’ve used segments but didn’t know they could be placed within {exp:channel:entries} - yes I am using the standard url structure so I’ll give it a try.

I think I’m going to have to revise the template naming though. Currently I’m using underscores to separate words in the channel names but dashes for the templates. I think they’ll have to use the same separator - no problem to change.

Thanks for your help.

Glad Phil was able to assist you here, martinj.

Is there anything else I can help you with?

Thanks!

Hi Kyle

Phil’s solution works great providing channel names and template names both use underscores (or both use dashes) to separate words.

As I’m still on the EE leaning curve I’m using underscores in channel names and dashes in template names - it helps me distinguish between the two in my code. I would love a solution which retains the different naming structures yet allows for the DRY coding. Otherwise I’ll just wait until I’m more familiar with EE tags.

Hey martinj,

I am glad to see that Phil was able to help you out!

If you need anything else, please just let us know by opening a new thread.

Cheers,