Thread

Hi;

is it possible to use a conditional to test whether a the contents of channel entry field begins with a particular text string? For example, I have a channel field that holds a URL. I’d like to check whether that URL has been entered with http:// at the beginning, or whether it just starts with www (in which case I’ll use the conditional to insert the http:// dynamically).

Is this possible?

I have seen a URL field type that might prevent the need for the conditional.  Otherwise there are several string-management type plugins that might work.

Hi Rick,

Have a look at PVL Check If. It’s one of the many string-related plugins that Mike was talking about.

Cheers,

Cheers Mike. Just wanted to double check that I wasn’t overlooking some native functionality before I went off looking for a plugin solution.

Dan: Thanks for the suggestion. Looks great at first glance, although I’m just trying to see how the syntax would work for checking the above example. I guess something like:

{exp:pvl_checkif value={url_field} contains=“http://”}
{url_field}
{else}
http://{url_field}
{/exp:pvl:checkif}

nested inside a channel:entries tag?

Hey Rick,

That’s my reading of it, yup! Is there anything else I can assist you with?

Cheers,

No, I think that’s it Dan, thanks. One thing did occur to me though, which is that the *contains* syntax for PVL CheckIf will work in the context of the URL example I outlined above (where there is only ever going to be one instance of http:// in the string), but could fail if I wanted to check for a particular text string at the start of a more generalised block of text (where the key string might conceivably exist further into the text rather than specifically at the start).

That’s certainly a consideration, Rick. I would think that it’s a better course of action here to use a fieldtype that checks for a URL while submitting the entry instead. Something like JCO URL.