Dynamic Variable

Documentation TOC » Features » Dynamic Variable

The dynamic variable feature allows you to add some content once, assigning it to a variable, and then you can use it dynamically throughout all your Tiki site by calling the variable name surrounded by percentage characters (%). Like this:

%variable14%

So To use, just click on the text in the box below:

Hello Tiki! Testing 1 2 4!

The permission tiki_p_edit_dynvar must be given to the group. On the current site tiki_p_edit_dynvar has been given to anonymous. The box above is just to help you find the text. Dynamic variables can be used in a sentence. For example, " Hello Tiki! Testing 1 2 4! " is the current value.

This can be useful for contact name, phone number, etc to be used throughout a Tiki site. If you have a multilingual Tiki, you can use dynamic variable for strings of text which are the same in all languages.

This feature is different than Dynamic Content

1. Usage

(1) Create a new variable, by calling it

%variable15%

This will show the text:

NaV

which indicates that this is "Not a Variable" yet. If you pass the mouse pointer over it, if will say "Click to edit dynamic variable: variable15" as follows:

(2) Click on the Nav link

Then you can add the content for that dynamic variable. Click on the update variable link, and you are done.

2. Limitations

If you create a variable containing some code which produces something "invisible", you cannot edit it later then because there's nothing to click and no admin GUI to administer them later. If you want to edit those dynamic variables, you will have to edit them directly to the database table tiki_dynamic_variables where they are stored.

Example:
You might use dynamic variable to clear the specification to float images over the text through a div plugin call, and without allowing users to write html code on wiki pages.

You can create a new variable called:

%clear%

Then add this as content:

<br class="clear" />

This way, you can just write %clear% after each paragraph where you want to ensure that the previous image don't overlap with the following heading, etc.

Example:

2.1. First section

This paragraph shows nothing more than a short paragraph, without the %clear% dynamic variable being used at the end, so that the next section overlaps.

2.2. Second section

This paragraph shows nothing more than a short paragraph overlapped to the left space from the previous floating image. However, after this paragraph we have added the %clear% dynamic variable, so that the next section don't overlap.

2.3. Third section

This paragraph shows nothing more than a short paragraph, which is not overlapped to the remaining space to the right of the previous floating image, because the %clear% dynamic variable was used above it.

So, if you want to edit the content of this variable afterwards, you need to edit it directly at the mysql table tiki_dynamic_variables.

3. Usage notes

1. Only lowercase letters, numbers and underscores appear to work in variable names

%Test1%          Does not work
%Test 1%         Does not work
%test%           Works
%test 1%         Does not work
%Test_1%         Does not work
%Test%           Does not work
%test1%          Works
%test_variable%  Works

2. Some wiki syntax works within the variable content (like ((wiki links))) and some do not (like %%% embedded newlines)
3. Some html content works

like <br /> for newlines

4. Here is a sample UPDATE command for a dynamic variable that contains wiki links:

UPDATE tiki_dynamic_variables 
SET data = "<br><h3>Links</h3><br>((Perl Arrays))<br>((Perl Variables))<br>"
WHERE name = "perl_wiki_links"

Wiki Argument Variables