check if article exists / display dummy if not

bmwg · 2011-03-01 19:28:07

I use the following code to display the 3 most recent news on my startpage:

     <ul>
        <li><txp:article_custom form="newsForm" category="news" limit="1" /></li>
        <li><txp:article_custom form="newsForm" category="news" limit="1" offset="1"/></li>
        <li><txp:article_custom form="newsForm" category="news" limit="1" offset="2"/></li>
      </ul>

How do I make sure a dummy <li> item gets displayed, when there are no 3 recent news? I don’t want to have empty spots on the page, so I need 3 <li> items for the layout, even if I don’t have enough articles.

colak · 2011-03-01 19:52:19

Hi bmwg,

Not sure what you are trying to achieve (apart from the extra li) can you post the content of newsForm?

I cannot understand for example why

<txp:article_custom form="newsForm" category="news" limit="3" wraptag="ul" break="li" />

would not work. After the third post in the news category all will be as you want it… Will it not?

Last edited by colak (2011-03-01 19:56:52)

bmwg · 2011-03-01 20:26:37

The news are getting deleted when they are not new anymore. Like special prices for a certain time or stuff like that. I don’t want a news-history, but only display up to 3 articles that are active at the moment. So quite often I will have less than 3 articles. But I still want 3 <li> tags. newsForm just displays date, title and excerpt of the article.

els · 2011-03-01 21:49:50

Wouldn’t it be better to use Yiannis’ tag example and wrap it in a div with a fixed height, than having empty <li></li> tags on your page?

bmwg · 2011-03-01 22:33:27

Yiannis code is just a more elegant version of mine, right?
Anyway, I have some kind of grid layout and the <li> are white blocks (with margins) on my page. The whole thing is actually wrapped in a div with a fixed size. But I still want 3 seperate white blocks, even if there’s less than 3 articles. Otherwise I get blank spots on my page where the background-pattern shows, which looks funny and destroys my grid.
Isnt’ there a way to count the articles of the news category and display dummy <li> items if the count is less than 3?

els · 2011-03-01 23:37:29

bmwg wrote:

     <ul>
        <li><txp:article_custom form="newsForm" category="news" limit="1" /></li>
        <li><txp:article_custom form="newsForm" category="news" limit="1" offset="1"/></li>
        <li><txp:article_custom form="newsForm" category="news" limit="1" offset="2"/></li>
      </ul>

How do I make sure a dummy <li> item gets displayed, when there are no 3 recent news? I don’t want to have empty spots on the page, so I need 3 <li> items for the layout, even if I don’t have enough articles.

Your code will output <li></li> if there is no article. If they don’t display how you want, maybe you need to give them a width and/or height in your css.

Last edited by els (2011-03-01 23:38:39)

merz1 · 2011-03-02 00:07:25

That’s a Textpattern feature not a bug :) Content and presentation are separated on purpose.
You need to define the presentation via positioned (background) placeholders in your CSS.

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#1 2011-03-01 19:28:07

check if article exists / display dummy if not

#2 2011-03-01 19:52:19

Re: check if article exists / display dummy if not

#3 2011-03-01 20:26:37

Re: check if article exists / display dummy if not

#4 2011-03-01 21:49:50

Re: check if article exists / display dummy if not

#5 2011-03-01 22:33:27

Re: check if article exists / display dummy if not

#6 2011-03-01 23:37:29

Re: check if article exists / display dummy if not

#7 2011-03-02 00:07:25

Re: check if article exists / display dummy if not

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