Low Variables

Low Variables Fieldtype

Low Variables 2.0.0 introduces the Low Variables Fieldtype. You can now choose to add a list of variables to your publish page, outputting the variable name. You can use that in other tags, like the {exp:low_variables:parse} tags. Per Low Variables field, the following settings apply:

Settings for a Low Variables fieldtype

Setting	Description
Allow multiple	Enable to allow the selection of multiple variables. When disabled, the field will display as a drop-down field. When enabled, it will display as a list of checkboxes.
Variable groups	Limit the selectable variables by variable group.

Please note that only non-hidden and variables with early parsing disabled show up in the variable list in the Publish Form.

The value of the field will be the variable name, for example: my_var. To output the variable name as a variable itself, add the suffix :var to your channel field name, for example: {my_channel_field:var}. This will output {my_var}, which will be parsed by the ExpressionEngine template parser at a later stage.

Examples

Say you have 5 different testimonial quotes stored as variables in the variable group Quotes, named lv_quote_1 to lv_quote_5. To each News entry, you want to add one of those quotes. Then add a Low Variables field to your News field group, eg. news_quote. Then select the Quotes group in the field settings. To output the quote, you’d need code like this:

{exp:channel:entries channel="news"}
  <h2>{title}</h2>
  {news_intro}
  {if news_quote}<blockquote><p>{news_quote:var}</p></blockquote>{/if}
{/exp:channel:entries}

You can use additional data by feeding the field value to the Low Variables template tag parameter, for example:

{exp:channel:entries channel="news"}
  <h2>{title}</h2>
  {news_intro}
  <div class="meta">
    <p>{exp:low_variables:label var="{news_quote}"}:</p>
    <blockquote>{exp:low_variables:single var="{news_quote}" format="textile"}</blockquote>
  </div>
{/exp:channel:entries}

If you’re allowing for multiple selections, you can use the channel field as a variable pair. In that case, use the variable {var} to output the variable name. For example:

{exp:channel:entries channel="news"}
  <h2>{title}</h2>
  {news_intro}
  {news_quotes}
    <blockquote><p>{{var}}</p></blockquote>
  {/news_quotes}
{/exp:channel:entries}