Defining Variables

Question

I am getting myself confused with how to define variables in craft. I am thinking in expressionengine mode where I can define a custom global variable to be used later in my templates. I see craft has what it calls "Globals" but i don't see where I can add a custom function for each global variable. Am I looking at this all wrong?

Or is everything done directly on the template? I am developing using jade, which is then compiled into the final html template. So running into errors adding the twig templating language into my jade templates.

Answer 1

I'm not familiar with Jade so I can't speak to that, however I would suspect that even if Jade did allow Twig syntax it would be mostly redundant.

Regarding variables. There are a number of ways to create variables in craft.

• Twig Variables - defined using {% set variable = 'value' %}, which can be printed using {{ variable }} or otherwise referenced by name. You can also assign a block of code to a variable using {% set variable %}...{% endset %}.
• Globals - global fields defined within the CP which can be accessed in your templates using {{ globalSetHandle.fieldHandle }}.
• Environment Variables can also be defined in your config file (although these are generally reserved for variables that are unique to a particular environment, i.e. 'BaseUrl' ).
• Plugin Template Variables - defined in php in your plugin's variables files

You might also want to look at Twigs extends, include, and embed methods.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "custom function for each global variable". Twig has some methods and functions that allow you to manipulate data (see twig functions and craft functions), as well as macro functionality for creating reusable code. Although if you are doing anything overly complicated it might be best to create a custom plugin.