W3TPL/tag/let

About

Action: Assigns a value to a variable.

This page is based on a close examination of the code as it existed on 2022-04-11, after extended debugging and reworking.

Tag Attributes

Each attribute is processed within a given stage, where stages are processed in essentially this order:

• GetTagInput():
  • (input) = input stage (determining where the input value should come from, and retrieving it)
• UseTagInput():
  • (calc) = doing things with the retrieved input
  • (output): = putting the results other places besides the target variable

Attributes within a set are processed in the order in which w3tpl sees them, though there is no guarantee that this will be the same order in which they appear in the tag (since MediaWiki does the tag-parsing).

core

Support for this attribute is required in order for the tag to fulfill its basic purpose.

• name=: name of variable to receive the calculated value

supported

• append (calc): append the input string to the current value
• arg= (input): name of POST field to retrieve as tag input
  • USAGE: form processing
• chr= (input): ASCII number of character to use as tag input
• copy= (input): name of another variable whose value should become the input
• echo (output): display the resulting value (at the tag's location in the page)
  • This should probably be deprecated. 2022-04-11
• lcase (calc): apply strtolower(), i.e. convert the input to lower case
  • opposite of "ucase"
• lcfirst (calc): apply lcfirst(), i.e. convert the first character of the input to lower case
  • opposite of "ucfirst"
• len= (calc): use only the first <len> characters of the input (this could probably stand some rethinking)
• parse (calc): have MediaWiki parse the input, and use the resulting string
• pre (calc): alias for "parse", for backwards compatibility
• self (input): use output variable's current value as input for processing
  • e.g. for incremental operations
• self (input): takes starting value from same variable, to allow unary operations
• trim (calc): apply trim()
• ucase (calc): apply strtoupper(), i.e. convert the input to upper case
  • opposite of "lcase"
• ucfirst (calc): apply ucfirst(), i.e. convert the first character of the input to upper case
  • opposite of "lcfirst"
• val= (input): value to use as input

unsupported

These are currently not enabled. Code to support some of them exists, though it may not be working.

• index=: treats the target variable (specified by <name>) as an array, and specifies the element to use
• load (should probably be "fetch"): retrieve starting value from the current page's properties
  • opposite of "save"
• null: set the calculated value to NULL
• null (input): use NULL as the input
• oparse is now just "parse"
• page= (input): name of wiki page to use as input (instead of tag contents)
• raw: if present, "save" will store the value as an unserialized string
  • The default is to serialize it, preserving variable type.
  • I think this only applied to <save>.
• save (should probably be "store"): store the result in the properties for the current page
  • opposite of "load"

History

• 2011-05-31 MainProcess()/DoFromScalar(): added "tag" attribute
• 2016-09-22 MainProcess()/DoFromScalar(): adapting as method of LET tag object
• 2017-10-30 MainProcess()/DoFromScalar(): major rewrite of everything
  • changing from static to dynamic
  • using internal properties
• 2017-11-01 rewrite
  • Removing support for "load" attribute until we have a usage case.
  • It doesn't make sense to load a value you'd have to save anyway.
    • (Different page, perhaps? But when would we need that? Need usage case.)
  • (MainProcess()) copied code from DoFromScalar() to MainProcess(), which will replace it
  • replacing DoFromScalar() with MainProcess()
• 2018-06-04 This currently saves the property values in RAW format (i.e. not serialized).
  • To change this, replace SaveValueRaw() with SaveValue().
• 2020-08-17 (MainProcess()) upgrades and fixes
  • Somehow, Var::GetValue_fromExpression() wasn't being called to interpret "val=" expressions. I've reinstated it. Not sure if there are other attributes where it should be applied. If they come up, document them.
• 2020-09-24 introducing the 'raw' attribute, which saves in non-serialized format
  • Now saving serialized by default.
• 2022-04-08 Belatedly saving the figured value into the variable. Where was that being done before?
• 2022-04-09
  • MainProcess() is, uh, no longer being called...
    • STAGE 1 was replaced by GetTagInput() (input is retrieved from somewhere)
    • STAGE 2 now replaced by UseTagInput() (operations are done on the input)
  • removed DoFromScalar()