Variable Modifiers
Most template variables can be modified for common formatting and output needs without requiring any plugins. For instance, making user-submitted content safe for use in a <meta>
tag attribute, limiting to a certain number of characters, displaying currency, or as JSON to create structured data for SEO (search engine optimization). These modifiers apply to:
- All Channel Fields
- URL Segment Variables
- Embed Variables
- Layout Variables
- Template Route Variables
- Standard Global Variables
- User-defined Template Variables
- All add-ons that use native APIs for parsing variables in templates
Note: Some add-ons and components may have modifiers not listed here. For instance the File Fieldtype has its own file information-related modifiers. The modifiers listed here are just those universally available.
Modifiers
:attr_safe
Parameter | Default | |
---|---|---|
double_encode= | no |
Whether or not to double encode already-encoded entities, e.g. should " become &quot; ? |
end_char= | … |
Character to append when a limit terminates the content |
limit= | number of characters to limit to (retains whole words) | |
unicode_punctuation= | yes |
Whether HTML entities for ’, ‘, ”, “, —, …, or non-breaking spaces should be decoded to the normal unicode characters. |
Makes content safe for use in an HTML attribute. It strips HTML tags, encodes special HTML characters, and can optionally limit the length of the content.
<meta name="description" content="{seo_descrip:attr_safe limit='150'}">
:censor
Censor naughty words, using the site’s Word Censorship settings.
{variable:censor}
{!-- Some ####### content with naughty words censored --}
:currency
Parameter | Default | |
---|---|---|
currency= | USD |
International currency code |
decimals= | standard for ICU locale |
Decimal precision |
locale= | en_US.UTF-8 |
The ICU locale ID |
Format a number as currency.
{cost:currency}
{!-- $142.73 --}
{cost:currency currency='EUR' locale='de_DE'}
{!-- 142,73 € --}
{cost:currency decimals='0'}
{!-- $399,000 --}
Note: For non-US locale support, the PHP intl
extension must be installed. Thankfully the PHP intl extension is available by default, so your environment would have had to intentionally disabled it (why??) for it to be unavailable.
:decrypt
Parameter | Default | |
---|---|---|
encode= | yes |
Base64-decode the content (necessary for safe transport, e.g. submitted in a form) |
key= | Custom encryption key to use. Allows you to potentially share encrypted data with another party without having to compromise your ExpressionEngine installation’s primary encryption key. |
Decrypt the content.
{secret:decrypt}
{!-- No more secrets --}
:encrypt
Parameter | Default | |
---|---|---|
encode= | yes |
Base64-decode the content (necessary for safe transport, e.g. submitted in a form) |
key= | Custom encryption key to use. Allows you to potentially share encrypted data with another party without having to compromise your ExpressionEngine installation’s primary encryption key. |
Encrypt the content.
{secret:encrypt}
{!-- H8JwSqsqVYUCvYBUmKqaXjO4VzLsyj791dtim3EfJT8= --}
:form_prep
Make the content safe to use as the value of a form field.
<input name="myField" type="text" value="{excerpt:form_prep}">
{!-- <input name="myField" type="text" value="A <em>brief</em> discussion about "Wonko the Sane""> --}
:json
Encode the content for JSON output.
"headline": {title:json},
// "headline": "Greatest Crash in Wall Street\u2019s History",
:length
Outputs the length of the content in characters.
{excerpt:length}
{!-- 217 --}
:limit
Parameter | Default | |
---|---|---|
characters= | 500 |
Number of characters to limit to |
preserve_words= | y |
Retain whole words |
end_char= | … |
character to append when a limit terminates the content |
Limits the content to the specified number of characters. Without preserve_words='n'
may be fewer than the exact limit, as this retains whole words.
{excerpt:limit characters='20'}
{!-- A discussion… --}
:number_format
Parameter | Default | |
---|---|---|
decimals= | 0 |
Number of decimal precision |
decimal_point= | . |
character to use as the decimal point |
thousands_separator= | , |
character to use as the thousands separator |
Formats a number using typical options.
{volume:number_format decimals='2'}
{!-- 1,234.56 --}
:ordinal
Parameter | Default | |
---|---|---|
locale= | en_US.UTF-8 |
The ICU locale ID |
Formats a number with its ordinal suffix.
{rank:ordinal}
{!-- 42nd --}
{rank:ordinal locale='es_ES'}
{!-- 42.º --}
Note: For non-US locale support, the PHP intl
extension must be installed. Thankfully the PHP intl extension is available by default, so your environment would have had to intentionally disabled it (why??) for it to be unavailable.
:raw_content
Output the raw, unparsed content of the variable, for example as stored in the database with no typography variable interpolation. Useful for creating content export templates.
{checkbox:raw_content}
{!-- IL|OR|HI --}
:replace
Parameter | Default | |
---|---|---|
case_sensitive= | yes |
Whether the Find pattern is treated as case-sensitive. Has no impact if the regex= parameter is used, since the regex pattern will define case-sensitivity. |
find= | The text to search for | |
regex= | no |
Whether the Find pattern should be handled as a regular expression |
replace= | The text to replace the Find pattern with |
Replace text within the content.
{content:replace find='vegetables' replace='pizza'}
{!-- You should eat pizza every day. --}
{full_name:replace find='/(.*?),\s*(.*)/' replace='$2 $1' regex='yes'}
{!-- John Doe (presuming {full_name} is "Doe, John") --}
{!-- Getting thumbnails from a Youtube URL --}
srcset="
{src:replace find='/^.*(?:(?:youtu\.be\/|v\/|vi\/|u\/\w\/|embed\/)|(?:(?:watch)?\?v(?:i)?=|\&v(?:i)?=))([^#\&\?]*).*$/' replace='https://i.ytimg.com/vi/$1/default.jpg' regex='yes'} 120w,
{src:replace find='/^.*(?:(?:youtu\.be\/|v\/|vi\/|u\/\w\/|embed\/)|(?:(?:watch)?\?v(?:i)?=|\&v(?:i)?=))([^#\&\?]*).*$/' replace='https://i.ytimg.com/vi/$1/mqdefault.jpg' regex='yes'} 320w,
{src:replace find='/^.*(?:(?:youtu\.be\/|v\/|vi\/|u\/\w\/|embed\/)|(?:(?:watch)?\?v(?:i)?=|\&v(?:i)?=))([^#\&\?]*).*$/' replace='https://i.ytimg.com/vi/$1/hqdefault.jpg' regex='yes'} 480w
"
:rot13
Perform a ROT13 substitution cypher to the content.
<span class="spoiler" data-secret="{spoiler:attr_safe}">{content:rot13}</span>
{!-- <span class="spoiler" data-secret="He was dead the whole time!">Ur jnf qrnq gur jubyr gvzr!</span> --}
:spellout
Parameter | Default | |
---|---|---|
capitalize= | none |
One of ucfirst (uppercase first letter) or ucwords (uppercase first letter of each word). Might not work for multibyte encodings. |
locale= | en_US.UTF-8 |
The ICU locale ID |
{rank:spellout}
{!-- forty-two --}
{rank:spellout capitalize='ucfirst'}
{!-- Forty-two --}
{rank:spellout locale='de_DE'}
{!-- zweiundvierzig --}
:trim
Returns a string with whitespace stripped from its beginning and its end.
Parameter | Default | |
---|---|---|
characters= | \n\r\t\v\0 |
As defined by PHP documentation |
{if layout:header_image:trim}
<style>
.main-header-and-search-form {
background-image: url('{layout:header_image:trim}');
}
</style>
{/if}
{hello:trim characters='Hdle'}
{!-- o Wor --}
:url
Normalize a URL to use in markup. Primarily to make sure it contains a valid protocol. For instance if {website}
was www.example.com
:
{website:url}
{!-- https://www.example.com/ --}
Note that it is best to use a URL field, so this is more useful for values coming from plugins or outside sources.
:url_decode
URL decode the contents.
<h1>Location: {segment_2:url_decode}</h1>
{!-- <h1>Location: New Zealand</h1> --}
:url_encode
Parameter | Default | |
---|---|---|
plus_encoded_spaces= | no |
whether or not to encode spaces as + instead of %20 |
URL encode the contents.
<a href="{path='view/{location:url_encode}'}">{location}</a>
{!-- <a href="https://example.com/view/New%20Zealand}">New Zealand</a> --}
:url_slug
Parameter | Default | |
---|---|---|
lowercase= | yes |
Whether to force a lowercase URL slug |
remove_stopwords= | no |
Whether to remove common words (obeys site configuration system/user/config/stopwords.php ) |
separator= | global-channel-word-seperator-label (typically a dash) |
The character to use as a word separator |
Create a URL slug from the content.
{excerpt:url_slug}
{!-- a-phrase-with-words-from-the-stopwords-list --}
{excerpt:url_slug remove_stopwords='yes'}
{!-- phrase-words-stopwords-list --}