Low Variables

Managing variables

There are a couple of extra properties you can assign to variables, other than their name and value. These are the general properties.

General properties for a Low Variable

Property	Description
Variable name	Name of the variable you can use in your templates. Example: lv_my_special_var.
Variable label	The label a user sees when editing the contents of the variable.
Variable notes	Adds notes or instructions to the variable label. If you enter 2 white lines (3 newlines) to the notes, the first part will be added as a header above the variable.
Group	Select which group the variable belongs to.
Hide variable	You can hide variables from regular users (non-managers) on a per-variable basis.
Early parsing	You can enable early parsing on a per-variable basis.
Save as file	You can choose to save the variable’s content on the server on a per-variable basis. The file will be saved as site_short_name/variable_name.html in the directory specified in the settings. Removed in v3.2.0
Variable type	Choose any variable type that suits your needs best. Here’s a list of variable types that come with Low Variables. Each type will reveal additional type-specific properties.

Variable creation options

When creating a new variable, you have two extra options you can use. First, you can set the initial value of the variable, so it has a value upon creation. Second, you can enter any amount of suffixes, separated by a space. A new variable will be created for each suffix entered, each with identical settings apart from the suffix.

When using the suffix option, you can use {suffix} in both the variable name as the variable label. This will be replaced by the actual suffix upon creation.

Variable groups

You can create any number of groups to organise your variables. These groups will appear in the Group drop down for each variable, so you can assign a group to it. On the module home page, variable managers can sort the groups using drag and drop. Variable managers can also edit and delete the groups from here, by clicking on the edit or delete icon next to the group name. You can alter the variable order in a group by editing the group’s properties.

General properties for Low Variables groups

Property	Description
Group label	The name of the group as it appears in the list.
Group notes	Adds notes or instructions to the group.
Variable display order	You can sort the variables in the group using drag and drop.

Group duplication

Instead of saving changes to an existing variable group, you can choose to save the group as a new group. Doing so will reveal a couple more options.

Duplication options for a Low Variables group

Option	Description
Duplicate variables	Optionally duplicate all variables in given group.
Variable suffix	If you want to duplicate the group variables, enter a single suffix to be applied to each new variable in the new group.
Suffix options	You can choose to either append the suffix to each new variable, or to replace an existing suffix for each new variable. Please note that the suffix is considered to be the part of the variable name after the last underscore.