Template Functions
The template functions in DCL, the language behind eMarketeer's Dynamic Content Engine (DCE), which composes structured layouts from nested chunks of code called blocks.
DCE uses nested chunks of code (blocks) to obtain a structured layout. Child blocks can be inserted manually by their parent block, or they can be "flowed" out at a specific point in the parent block.
In eMarketeer these blocks are called Container Blocks. A Container Block can have HTML code and can have child blocks. There are also other blocks such as Text, Image, and Link Blocks, which do not include HTML but can still use parts of DCL. To create blocks in eMarketeer, open the HTML editor in developer mode and use the UI to add blocks. To change the order of flowed blocks, use drag and drop in the eMarketeer UI.
Inserting blocks
To insert a child block, use the insert_block function.
<div id="child">
<% insert_block name="child_block" [onlypos="first,middle,last"] %>
</div>The optional onlypos parameter is a flow-control argument and can be ignored for now. The child block starts rendering at the position in the code. The <div> tag is not required; it is shown for demonstration.
Insert code
There is a function for inserting HTML code into DCE. It may seem redundant since you can just write HTML in the editor, but this function gives you conditional control and the onlypos argument for flow control.
<% insert_code code="<b>Hello World</b>"
[onlypos="first,middle,last"]
[notempty=String]
[empty=String]
%>onlypos is not covered further here. empty and notempty are conditional arguments. They insert the code only if the string in the argument is empty or not empty.
Flow control
DCE has functions for flowing content into the resulting document. Flowing means you do not explicitly insert a block using insert_block. When the container is rendered and its child is not rendered, the block renders all its unrendered children after its own content.
In eMarketeer, open the settings on a container block and mark it as a flow block so the children flow automatically. This also makes the UI drag-and-drop aware in that block, so you can reorder the children.
You can change where the flow happens. By default it is after the block's own content, but you can move it. In the example below, the flow occurs in the after-this div.
A child is aware of its position in the flow and can change its content based on that. A child knows whether it is inserted first, middle, or last in the flow. Think of this as a flow from top to bottom.
1 Block
Only block, considers itself first and last
2 Blocks
Top block considers itself first
Bottom block considers itself last
3 Blocks or more
Top block considers itself first
All blocks but top and bottom considers themselves middle
Bottom block considers itself last
The insert_block and insert_code functions take the onlypos argument, which inserts code only if the position in the flow matches. If you use onlypos, rendering is off by default until a match is found. The positions in the onlypos argument are a comma-separated list of first, middle, or last. They are parsed from left to right, and a block renders if a block that considers itself first encounters a first in the argument. To suppress rendering, use ! before the position. Consider this code:
The table below explains what happens to blocks when they encounter this specific code.
1 Block
Only block, although "last" matches and would render, "!first" also matches and turns rendering off.
2 Blocks
First block matches on "first" and will turn off rendering.
Last block matches on "last" and will render the code.
3 Blocks or more
First block matches on "!first" and will never render the code.
All blocks but top and bottom matches on "middle" and will render the code.
Last block matches on "last" and will render the code.
It can be hard to see why you would need such a system. The code above can be inserted first in a block to draw a divider between blocks. The divider only renders before a block that has a sibling block directly before it. It never renders on the first block, and it never renders if there is only one block.
You can also reset the flow. After a reset, whatever block comes next is treated as first again. This is useful when you do not want a divider between specific blocks. For example, if an image block does not need a divider after it, put this code last in the image block:
With the insert_code above, the block that follows does not render a divider, because it is now first in the flow again.
Case converting
DCL has three functions for converting the case of strings: uppercase, lowercase, and "title". Title means the first letter of the string becomes uppercase and the rest lowercase.
Convert the first name on the contact card to uppercase:
Convert the first name on the contact card to lowercase:
Convert the first name on the contact card to title case:
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