pad

PAD Options Reference

This document provides a complete reference for all PAD tag options.

Usage

Options are specified as attributes on PAD tags:

{tagName option="value" anotherOption="value"}

Multiple options can be combined:

{data toData="myData" quote="'" glue=", " open="[" close="]"}

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Processing Phases

Options are processed at different phases during tag execution:

Phase	When	Options
Start	Before content generation	track, before, dedup, page, sort, ignore, print, parent, trace, pre
End	After content generation	toBool, toContent, toData, tidy, dump
Callback	During callback execution	callback
Special	Handled at specific points	data, content, else, null, bool, optional, noError

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Data Source Options

Options that specify where to get data from.

data

Retrieves data from a named source.

{tagName data="sourceName"}

Resolution order:

1. $padDataStore[$sourceName] - Data store
2. $pqStore[$sourceName] - Sequence store
3. padData($sourceName) - Load from data provider

Example:

{users data="cachedUsers"}
{list data="queryResults"}

content

Retrieves content from the content store.

{tagName content="contentName"}

Returns: Content from $padContentStore[$contentName]

Example:

{div content="savedHeader"}

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Data Storage Options

Options that store results for later use.

toData

Stores the processed data array to a named variable.

{tagName toData="variableName"}

Stores to: $padDataStore[$variableName]

Behavior:

• If no content/pair and data exists, stores the data array directly
• Otherwise stores the walked data after processing
• Clears the result output (silent storage)

Example:

{users where="active=1" toData="activeUsers"}
{list data="activeUsers"}...{/list}

toContent

Stores the generated content/output to a named variable.

{tagName toContent="variableName"}

Stores to: $padContentStore[$variableName]

Behavior:

• Stores $padResult[$pad] to the content store
• Clears the result output (silent storage)

Example:

{header toContent="pageHeader"}
{div content="pageHeader"}

toBool

Stores a boolean result based on the output state.

{tagName toBool="flagName"}

Stores to: $padBoolStore[$flagName]

Boolean logic:

• TRUE if result has non-empty trimmed content
• FALSE if null, else condition, or empty result

Example:

{users where="admin=1" toBool="hasAdmins"}
{if bool="hasAdmins"}...{/if}

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Boolean & Conditional Options

bool

Retrieves or creates a boolean flag value.

{if bool="flagName"}

Behavior:

• If flag exists in $padBoolStore, returns its value
• If not exists, creates a new flag via padMakeFlag()

Example:

{checkPermission toBool="canEdit"}
{if bool="canEdit"}Edit{/if}

optional

Marks a tag as optional - suppresses “not found” errors.

{$maybeUndefined | optional}
{tagName optional}

Behavior:

• Calls padLevel('') - returns empty string on failure
• Prevents error when field/variable doesn’t exist

Example:

{$user.middleName | optional}

demand

Marks a tag as required (callback mode).

{tagName demand}

Behavior:

• Returns TRUE (for callback processing)
• Indicates the tag must produce output

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Conditional Content Options

Options that provide alternative content based on result state.

null

Provides alternative content when result is NULL.

{tagName null="alternativeContent"}

Triggers when:

• Result is NULL
• Result is INF
• Result is NaN

Behavior:

• Resets state and replaces content
• Clears null/else flags, sets hit to TRUE

Example:

{$user.avatar null="defaultAvatar"}

else

Provides alternative content when result is empty/false.

{tagName else="alternativeContent"}

Triggers when:

• Result is empty array []
• Result is FALSE
• Result is empty string ''

Example:

{users where="premium=1" else="noPremiumUsers"}

notOk

Provides alternative content on error/failure state.

{tagName notOk="errorContent"}

Similar to else but for error conditions.

error

Alias for notOk.

{tagName error="errorContent"}

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Output Formatting Options

quote

Wraps content with specified quote characters.

{tagName quote="'"}
{tagName quote='"'}

Result: 'content' or "content"

Example:

{$name quote="'"}  →  'John'

open

Prepends content at the start of the first occurrence only.

{tagName open="prefix"}

Implementation: Wraps in {first}prefix{/first}

Example:

{list open="["}  →  [item1, item2, item3

close

Appends content at the end of the last occurrence only.

{tagName close="suffix"}

Implementation: Wraps in {last}suffix{/last}

Example:

{list close="]"}  →  item1, item2, item3]

glue

Adds a separator between items (not after the last one).

{tagName glue=", "}

Implementation: Wraps in {notLast}separator{/notLast}

Example:

{list glue=", "}  →  item1, item2, item3

Combined Formatting

Options can be combined for complex formatting:

{list quote="'" glue=", " open="[" close="]"}

Result: ['item1', 'item2', 'item3']

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Processing Control Options

ignore

Wraps content in ignore tags to skip PAD processing.

{tagName ignore}

Implementation: Wraps content as {ignore}content{/ignore}

Use case: Output literal PAD syntax without evaluation.

tidy

Cleans up whitespace and formatting in the output.

{tagName tidy}

Implementation: Calls padTidy($padContent, TRUE)

Example:

{template tidy}  →  Cleaned output with normalized whitespace

noError

Suppresses error handling for the tag.

{tagName noError}

Behavior: Handled in level/var.php - prevents error reporting

Use case: When errors are expected and should be silently ignored.

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Callback Options

callback

Invokes an application callback for custom processing.

{tagName callback="callbackName"}

Calls: APP/_callbacks/callbackName.php

Example:

{users callback="processUsers"}

before

Processes callback in “before” mode - runs before content generation.

{tagName before callback="initData"}

Behavior:

1. Calls padCallbackBeforeXxx('init')
2. Iterates data with padCallbackBeforeRow()
3. Calls padCallbackBeforeXxx('exit')

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Start Phase Options

Options processed at the start of tag execution.

track

Enables tracking for the tag.

{tagName track}

dedup

Enables deduplication of data.

{tagName dedup}

page

Enables pagination.

{tagName page}

sort

Enables sorting.

{tagName sort}

parent

Handles parent relationship.

{tagName parent}

trace

Enables tracing for debugging.

{tagName trace}

pre

Enables preprocessing.

{tagName pre}

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Debug Options

dump

Outputs debug information about current state.

{tagName dump}

Calls: padDumpToDir()

Use case: Debugging template processing

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Print Option

print

Enables direct output printing with formatting options.

{tagName print}

Behavior:

• Outputs {&firstFieldValue}
• Applies formatting options: quote, open, glue, close

Example:

{list print quote="'" glue=", "}

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Option Summary by Category

Data Flow

| Option | Direction | Description | |——–|———–|————-| | data | Input | Get data from source | | content | Input | Get content from store | | toData | Output | Store data to variable | | toContent | Output | Store content to variable | | toBool | Output | Store boolean flag |

Conditional

| Option | Description | |——–|————-| | bool | Check/create boolean flag | | optional | Suppress not-found errors | | demand | Mark as required | | null | Alternative for NULL | | else | Alternative for empty/false | | notOk | Alternative for error | | error | Alias for notOk |

Formatting

| Option | Description | |——–|————-| | quote | Wrap in quotes | | open | Prefix on first item | | close | Suffix on last item | | glue | Separator between items | | tidy | Clean whitespace |

Control

| Option | Description | |——–|————-| | ignore | Skip PAD processing | | noError | Suppress errors | | callback | Run application callback | | before | Callback before content | | print | Direct output mode | | dump | Debug output |

Start Phase

| Option | Description | |——–|————-| | track | Enable tracking | | dedup | Deduplicate data | | page | Enable pagination | | sort | Enable sorting | | parent | Handle parent | | trace | Enable tracing | | pre | Preprocessing |

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Application-Specific Options

Applications can define custom options by placing PHP files in:

APP/_options/optionName.php

These are processed during the app phase and have access to:

• $padContent - Current content
• $padGetName - Option parameter value
• All global PAD variables

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Processing Order

1. Data retrieval: data, content
2. Conditional setup: else
3. Start options: track, before, dedup, page, sort, ignore, print, parent, trace, pre
4. App options: Custom application options
5. Content generation: Tag processing
6. Flag handling: null (if NULL result)
7. Callback: callback
8. End options: toBool, toContent, toData, tidy, dump

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