Templates: various questions not worth their own thread

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by chaley

First question: what is a "topmost tag"? It seems that it is the first first hierarchical component of the first tag on the list, but as you can't depend on the order of tags in the list that seems wrong.

What do you want to have happen if the first tag is '[Cleanup]'? Do you want the second tag? if so then this would work:

	t = sublist($tags, 0, 1, ',');
	if t == "[CLEANUP]" then
		t = sublist($tags, 1, 2, ',')
	fi;
	re(t, '^(.*?)($|\..*$)', '\1')

"Topmost tag" -- if 'Fiction.Mystery.Cozy Mystery', then 'Fiction.' If 'Nonfiction.Biographies & Memoirs', then 'Nonfiction.' I call it that because in the tag browser it appears at the top of the hierarchy.

And yes, just go to the next tag. Hopefully the code works.

[ownedbycats]

For a template search, is there a way to search for 'template returns any value'?

e.g. the first search I did via a GPM if-then returning 'yes' but there might be a better way.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

For a template search, is there a way to search for 'template returns any value'?

e.g. the first search I did via a GPM if-then returning 'yes' but there might be a better way.

Use the "set/not set" match type with "true" or "false" as needed. See the tool tip on the "Template value" box in Advanced search / Template search / Template value.

EDIT: like this (screen capture)

[ownedbycats]

That works! I should check tooltips more often.

[ownedbycats]

program: round(days_between($#filedate, $date))

Using this in template search with value '0' also picks up books with an undefined #filedate. How do I avoid this?

EDIT: Also, is there a better way to search that both columns have the same calendar date? MCS failed.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

program: round(days_between($#filedate, $date))

Using this in template search with value '0' also picks up books with an undefined #filedate. How do I avoid this?

None is often equivalent to zero. Try raw_date('#filedate', -1000000).

EDIT: Also, is there a better way to search that both columns have the same calendar date? MCS failed.

I would format both dates in the same way, for example yyyy-mm-dd (watch out for mm vs MM -- I never remember which is which), then compare the strings.

[BetterRed]

MM is Month because it's bigger than a minute.

BR

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

MM is Month because it's bigger than a minute.

BR

[ownedbycats]

That works. I also could've added #filedate:true to the search.

[ownedbycats]

program:

## Splitting tags
	if 
		'^(Fiction|Nonfiction)' in $#booktype 
	then 
		split_tags = re($tags, '\.', ',') 
	fi;

## Removing a few unwanteds
	cleaned_tags = list_difference(
		split_tags,
		'Fiction, Nonfiction, Cultures & Regions, Social Issues',
		',');

Three things this template to do:
1. Retrieve tags when the booktype is Fiction|Nonfiction.
2. Replace the '.' with a ',' to turn hierarchical tags into a list.
3. Remove a few unwanted entries from the list.

It works... mostly. If booktype is not Fiction|Nonfiction, it returns EXCEPTION: Interpreter: Unknown identifier 'split_tags' - line number 12. What should I do?

EDIT: I found that also adding a second if-then check for Fiction|Nonfiction before cleaning the tags works.

[ownedbycats]

Question: Is it possible to reference a grouped search in a template?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Question: Is it possible to reference a grouped search in a template?

To do what?

[ownedbycats]

Something like if 'value' in groupsearch (or inlist?) where groupsearch was a few related columns.

I suppose for this case it might make more sense to just combine them together in the template itself with a list_join or something.

[ownedbycats]

A different question:

I have this for a column.

program:
	first_non_empty(
		if 'Cleanup' in virtual_libraries() then 'polish.png' fi,
		if 'Fanfiction' in $#booktype then icons_fanfic() fi,
		if 'Documentations & Manuals' in $#booktype then 'helpbook.png' fi,
		if 'Loans' in virtual_libraries() then 'overdrive.png' fi,
		if 'Physical Books' in virtual_libraries() then 'paperbook.png' fi,
		'view.png',
	)

icons_fanfic() is a strcat that looks like this so that I get multiple icons:

program:
	f = $#fanficcat;
   strcat(
		if "^Fallout$" inlist f then 'fallout.png:' fi,
		if "^Half-Life$" inlist f then 'halflife.png:' fi,
		if "^(Mass Effect Trilogy|Mass Effect: Andromeda)$" inlist f then 'masseffect.png:' fi,
		if "^The Elder Scrolls$" inlist f then 'theelderscrolls.png:' fi,
		if "^Pokémon$" inlist f then 'pokemon.png:' fi,		
		if "^Portal$" inlist f then 'portal.png:' fi,
   )

In the first template, I'd like to display only the first icon in order to match the others.

If it's possible, it seems the easiest way to do this would be to truncate at the first colon so the output is, e.g. fallout.png instead of fallout.png:halflife.png:. Is this doable?

EDIT: list_split is what i was looking for!

		if 'Fanfiction' in $#booktype then 
			list_split(icons_fanfic(), ':', 'ff'); 
		ff_0 fi,

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Something like if 'value' in groupsearch (or inlist?) where groupsearch was a few related columns.

I suppose for this case it might make more sense to just combine them together in the template itself with a list_join or something.

A grouped search term (gst) is in effect a way of giving a name to a set of searches, one for each column in the gst. It doesn't have a value outside of a search.

To do what I think you want you need to invoke the search. For example, if you want to know if a gst will match the current book then something like this:

program:
	globals(ids = '');
	if ! ids then
		ids = book_values('id', '@gst:true', ',', 0);
		set_globals(ids)
	fi;
	$id in ids

The template finds the id of all books matched by the gst and saves it in globals for efficiency. It then checks if the current book id is in the list, returning '1' if so and '' if not.