Test a variable in a set entries tag

Question

I have a page with a featured entry at the top and then remaining entries showing below. On the first

{% set entries = craft.entries({
  section: 'articles',
  limit: 1,
  search: 'featuredOnHomepage:1'
}) %}
{% for entry in entries %}
  entry print out
  {% set homeFeature = entry.id %}
{% endfor}

Later in the template I do

    {% set entries = craft.entries({
        section:        'articles',
        order:          'postDate',
        limit:          4
    }).id('not ' ~ homeFeature) 
    %}
    {% for entry in entries %}
      <div class="summary-box">
        <h2><a href="{{ entry.url }}">{{ entry.title }}</a></h2>    
        {% set asset = entry.articleImage.first() %}
        {% if asset %}
          <a href="{{ entry.url }}"><img src="{{ asset.getUrl('summaryImage') }}" /></a>
        {% endif %}
      </div>
    {% endfor %} 

But it is still including the feature id. If I hardcode in the entry id it works fine. I have tried to print the {{ homeFeature }} variable in the second part and I get nothing yet in the first part it prints out the correct ID. I am assuming the variables don't persist through the different loops. Is there a way to make them persist or write the code differently?

Further Info

I have tried the solution from Edit 2 and still having an issue. Perhaps a little more info. There is a template _layout as is common. The template I am accessing is called index.html and is the homepage for the site. It includes

{% extends _layout %}
{% block headercontent %}
  code that prints out featured article
{% endblock %}
{% block content %}
  code that prints out remainder of articles minus feature
{% endblock %}

Trying to implement your Edit 2 solution I tried just declaring the variable in index.html outside of the blocks. That didn't work so I tried declaring it in _layout before the block calls. That also didn't work so then I tried in _layout {% set homeFeature = "foo" %} and in index.html {% set homeFeature = "bar" %} Then I added a print out of the {{ homeFeature }} variable within both blocks. Within the headercontent block i get 13 (the entry's id) and within the content block i get "foo" which I find very odd. Here is the full code minus some html if it helps.

_layout

 {% set homeFeature = "foo" %}
 <header>
 some other html
 {% block headercontent %}
 {% endblock %}
 </header>
 {% block content %}
 {% endblock %}

index.html

{% extends "_layout" %}
{% set homeFeature = "bar" %}
{% block headercontent %}
  <div id="home-featured">
    {% set entries = craft.entries({
      section: 'articles',
      limit: 1,
      search: 'featuredOnHomepage:1'
    }) %}
    {% for entry in entries %}
      {% set homeFeature = entry.id %}
      <h1>The feature id is: {{ homeFeature }}</h1>
      <h4>Featured</h4>
      <h2><a href="/articles/{entry.url}">{{ entry.title }}</a></h2>
      {{ entry.articleSummary }}
      <p>FILED IN: 
      {% set categories = craft.categories({
        relatedTo: { sourceElement: entry, field: "typeCategory, mainCategory" },
        limit:     null
      }) %}
      {% for category in categories %}
        <a href="{{ category.url }}">{{ category.title }}{% if not loop.last %}, {% endif %}</a>
      {% endfor %}
      </p>
    {% endfor %}
  </div>
{% endblock %}

{% block content %}
  <main id="content" role="main">
    <div class="green-block">
      <div id="home-stamp" class="wrapper">
        <img src="/css/gfx/home-map.gif" />
        {{ entry.body }}
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="wrapper">
      {% set entries = craft.entries({
        section:        'articles',
        order:          'postDate',
        limit:          4,
        id: 'not '~homeFeature
      }) 
      %}
      {% for entry in entries %}
        <h1>The feature id is: {{ homeFeature }}</h1>
        <div class="summary-box">
          <h2><a href="{{ entry.url }}">{{ entry.title }}</a></h2>  
          {% set asset = entry.articleImage.first() %}
          {% if asset %}
            <a href="{{ entry.url }}"><img src="{{ asset.getUrl('summaryImage') }}" /></a>
          {% endif %}
        </div>
      {% endfor %} 
    </div>
  </main>
{% endblock %}

Answer 1

A quick fix would be to set homeFeature outside the for loop and than the one inside the loop would change the one outside, you could than access it from other parts of your template.

{% set homeFeature = "" %}

{% set entries = craft.entries({
    section: 'articles',
    limit: 1,
    search: 'featuredOnHomepage:1'
}) %}

{% for entry in entries %}
    {% set homeFeature = entry.id %}
{% endfor}

Edit: here it is at the twig docs - http://twig.sensiolabs.org/doc/tags/set.html - "Note that loops are scoped in Twig; therefore a variable declared inside a for loop is not accessible outside the loop itself. ... If you want to access the variable, just declare it before the loop"

Edit 2 : For the id part you just need to make sure that the homeFeature is declared outside any block scope. after that you could use this later in the template

{% set entries = craft.entries({
    section:        'articles',
    order:          'postDate',
    limit:          4,        
    id:             'not '~homeFeature
}) %} 

Edit 3: Given the extra information, it seems that you are over complicating the task, and scopes can get tricky. So this is what i would do.

_layout.html set the featured article globally, why not?

{% set homeFeature = craft.entries({ 
    section: 'articles', 
    limit: 1,
    featuredOnHomepage: '1'
    })|first %}        
<header>
    some other html
    {% block headercontent %}
    {% endblock %}
</header>
{% block content %}

{% endblock %}

index.html

{% extends "_layout" %}

{% block headercontent %}
    <div id="home-featured">
        <h1>The feature id is: {{ homeFeature.id }}</h1>
        <h4>Featured</h4>
        <h2><a href="/articles/{entry.url}">{{ homeFeature.title }}</a></h2>
        {{ homeFeature.articleSummary }}
        <p>FILED IN: 
        {% set categories = craft.categories({
            relatedTo: { sourceElement: homeFeature, field: "typeCategory, mainCategory" },
            limit:     null
        }) %}
        {% for category in categories %}
            <a href="{{ category.url }}">{{ category.title }}{% if not loop.last %}, {% endif %}</a>
        {% endfor %}
        </p>
        {% endfor %}
    </div>
{% endblock %}

{% block content %}
<main id="content" role="main">
    <div class="green-block">
    <div id="home-stamp" class="wrapper">
        <img src="/css/gfx/home-map.gif" />
        {{ entry.body }}
    </div>
    </div>
    <div class="wrapper">
    {% set entries = craft.entries({
        section:        'articles',
        order:          'postDate',
        limit:          4,
        id: 'not '~homeFeature.id
    }) 
    %}
    {% for entry in entries %}
        <h1>The feature id is: {{ entry.id }}</h1>
        <div class="summary-box">
        <h2><a href="{{ entry.url }}">{{ entry.title }}</a></h2>  
        {% set asset = entry.articleImage.first() %}
        {% if asset %}
            <a href="{{ entry.url }}"><img src="{{ asset.getUrl('summaryImage') }}" /></a>
        {% endif %}
        </div>
    {% endfor %} 
    </div>
</main>
{% endblock %}

Answer 2

You're dealing with scope issues – both related to for loops and in regards to extending templates (blocks).

First, any variable set inside a for loop will not be available outside that loop.

The solution is to declare the variable outside the loop:

{% set homeFeature = null %}
{% for entry in entries %}
    {% set homeFeature = entry.id %}
{% endfor %}

<p>The home feature's ID is {{ homeFeature }}</p>

For {% block %} tags, the same applies – any variable set inside a block is not available outside that block. Much like with for loops, you can declare a variable outside a block, and it will be available inside the block. However, unlike with for loops if you change the value of that variable inside a block, the updated variable will not be available to other blocks in the same template. In other words, this doesn't work:

{% extends '_layout' %}

{% set homeFeature = null %}

{% block headerContent %}
    {% set homeFeature = 'foo' %}
{% endblock %}

{% block content %}
    {{ homeFeature }} {# Still a `null` value! #}
{% endblock %}

There are a lot of potential workarounds to your specific issue, though.

First, since you can set a variable outside the blocks, something like this would work – simply execute the craft.entries query for the featured entry outside the blocks, and store the result in a variable that can be accessed inside the blocks:

{% extends '_layout' %}

{% set homeFeature = craft.entries({
    section: 'articles',
    limit: 1,
    featuredOnHomepage: '1'
}).first() %}

{% block headercontent %}
    <div id="home-featured">
        {% if homeFeature %}<h1>The feature id is: {{ homeFeature.id }}</h1>{% endif %}
    </div>
{% endblock %}

{% block content %}
    {% set entries = craft.entries({
        section:        'articles',
        order:          'postDate',
        limit:          4,
        id: homeFeature ? 'not '~homeFeature.id : null
    }) %}
    ...
{% endblock %}

The drawback with the above, is that it's going to be difficult to {% cache %} the craft.entries query outside the blocks. For a single, basic query this probably doesn't matter much in the scheme of things, though.

Another approach is to simply query for the homeFeature entry inside each {% block %}. You can even make things a bit more DRY by storing the actual query parameters in a variable outside the blocks:

{% extends '_layout' %}

{% set homeFeatureQuery = {
    section: 'articles',
    limit: 1,
    featuredOnHomepage: '1'
} %}

{% block headercontent %}
    <div id="home-featured">
        {% set homeFeature = craft.entries(homeFeatureQuery).first() %}
        {% if homeFeature %}<h1>The feature id is: {{ homeFeature.id }}</h1>{% endif %}
    </div>
{% endblock %}

{% block content %}
    {% set homeFeature = craft.entries(homeFeatureQuery).first() %}
    {% set entries = craft.entries({
        section:        'articles',
        order:          'postDate',
        limit:          4,
        id: homeFeature ? 'not '~homeFeature.id : null
    }) %}
    ...
{% endblock %}

Of course, the drawback with this approach is that you need to do two separate queries – but at least everything can be cached.