Thread

Hello.  I am struggling to create a nested conditional that performs different actions depending on whether there are any entries in a channel for which a custom date field value (“events-date”) is in the future.  Here is what I want to accomplish in plain English:

Step 1. For all events-date > current_time, list event
Step 2. If no entries exist with events-date > current_time, display “there are no upcoming events”

Below is the code I have so far, which successfully accomplishes Step 1 above:

<h3>Upcoming Events</h3>
<p> {exp:channel:entries status="{env_status}" channel="events" category="not 43" dynamic="no" paginate="bottom"}<br />
  {if events-date > current_time}<br />
   <ul class="news-updates"><br />
    <li>       <br />
     {events-date format="%F %j%S, %Y"}<br />
     <a href="http://{page_url}">{title}</a><br />
    </li><br />
   </ul><br />
  {/if}<br />
 {/exp:channel:entries}

However, if there are no entries that meet the criteria, the listing will be blank.  What I can’t figure out how to do is display an alternate message if there are no entries with future events-date.  Note that there are many entries in the channel with events-date in the past, so I can’t just do “{if no_results}...” within the exp:channel:entries tag pair.  Logically, it would have to go within the {if events-date > current_time} statement, but that does not work (nothing is displayed).  Here is what I tried, without success:

<h3>Upcoming Events</h3>
<p> {exp:channel:entries status="{env_status}" channel="events" category="not 43" dynamic="no" paginate="bottom"}<br />
  {if events-date > current_time}<br />
   {if no_results}<br />
    There are currently no upcoming events scheduled.  To subscribe to email updates, click <a href="/subscribe">here</a>.<br />
   {/if}<br />
   <ul class="news-updates"><br />
    <li>       <br />
     {events-date format="%F %j%S, %Y"}<br />
     <a href="http://{page_url}">{title}</a><br />
    </li><br />
   </ul><br />
  {/if}<br />
 {/exp:channel:entries}

Alternatively, I wonder if there’s any way to use the “search:field_name=” parameter to filter out events-date values before current_time.

I hope I’m explaining my issue clearly; I’ll be happy to offer any clarification that is needed.

Thank you,

-Michael

There’s an add-on from Solspace that you might want to have a look at that allows you to work with custom date fields more flexibly - it’s called date field filter. It effectively recaps the native date ordering and sorting functionalities to the custom date field of your choice which then allows you to use if no_results conditionals to do what you’re aiming to do.

Hope that helps!

Thank you, John.  That did the trick!