[MTOS-dev] More docs.... Archive Template Variables

[Beau Smith]

Su_

Thank you for your questions, your through questions are much  
appreciated.

Sorry for the delay in response, I wanted to wait till I had time to  
accurately reply.

On Apr 7, 2008, at 12:57 PM, Su wrote:

> * I assume these variables fall in with anything I might specify with
> MTVar? If so, that doc page should make it explicit. While most of
> these variable names are pretty unlikely to be declared by users, I
> /can/ imagine someone creating "page_id"

Yes, there possibility of a conflict... but then again if you don't  
close your <div> tag...

The Archive Template Variables are used very sparingly in the default  
templates, and page_id is not used.


> * Doesn't page_id really refer to a CLASS or TYPE of page? Am I
> missing some deeper implication in that name, or are we just going to
> disagree on terms?

I'm willing to change this... but we must change this before 4.15 is  
out of beta.

Suggestions?


> * What does "main_template" refer to? I checked in the 4.1
> WeblogPublisher and /every/ occurence of it is set to true, so I don't
> have any counter-example to speculate from. Does it have something to
> do with http://bugs.movabletype.org/default.asp?75115 ?

Errr.... sorry, this was a variable necessary in the past... but no  
longer necessary.

It was removed from the app code, but I failed to remove it from this  
documentation until.... now.


> * Are these not available for Folders? The code's commented out in
> 4.1, and missing altogether in 4.15b1.

When MT has the following archive mappings for a page listings...

* Folder
* Folder-Daily
* Folder-Weekly
* Folder-Monthly
* Folder-Yearly

then it'll make sense to have Archive Template Variables for these  
archive types.


> * This is kind of annoying:
> author_monthly_archive: 1
> module_author-monthly_archives: 1
> category_monthly_archive: 1
> module_category-monthly_archives: 1
> ...and so on for the other types.
> Why the shifts from underscores to dashes in the archive types? And is
> it too late to do something about?

Ack! I had thought of this, but forgot to "deprecate" the variables in  
the docs.

The module_* variables are only required for the sidebar templates  
from MT4.0. The variables were originally set in the blog templates,  
but moved into the app to simplify the blog template code.

Default Blog Templates in MT4.1 integrated WidgetManager and some meta  
widgets making these variables no longer necessary.

Unfortunately the module_* variables have to remain in the app code  
for legacy support of the MT4.0 template sets... but because the  
module_* variables are not used in current templates, I've marked them  
as "Deprecated in MT4.1"

---
UPDATED: Archive Template Variables
http://www.movabletype.org/documentation/designer/archive-template-variables.html

Su, thanks again for you feedback. I owe you a six pack. =)

_beau