Using A Child Templae As URL Variable, Without Loading the Child Page

[John W.]

Hi,

I've set up a structure like so:

 

these are the templates

documents -> documents_category -> documents_document

 

Basically, when someone goes to /documents/ it creates a listbox of categories and the page then lists all the documents_document in that documents_category.

In my listbox, I have the url value set to /documents/document_category

for instance /documents/human-resources/ would list all the documents contained under human-resource.

Herein is the problem, I just want to use the human-resources as a url parameter to pass to /documents/ rather than processwire trying to load an actual page at /documents/human-resources/documentname

Right now, it goes to /documents/human-resources/documentname/

Is there a way to set processwire to treat human-resources as a url parameter and not attempt to load the child page /documentname/?

 

 

Note, I added a path like /documents/results/document-category/ which works, however, I need this to work in the back-end when using a page select field.

The only solution I could think of was creating a documents_category.php file that takes the url, /documents/document-category/ and changes it to /documents/results/document-category/ then does a session redirect. Using this  a page select would go to /documents/document/category/ which inserts the "/results/" segment and then redirects to /documents/results/category-name

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

[Sergio]

/documents/human-resources/ is a page accessible because it has a template file and is published. 

If you set, to its children, a template that does not have a template file (.php), they will not be accessible directly. So you can use the API to get their content and show to the user. 

So:

/documents/human-resources/ works

/documents/human-resources/document-name will get a 404

 

[John W.]

Yeah, I understand that. I had to create a page for the document-name, simple php file that redirects to documents/results/human-resources/

my documents.php then pulls the 3rd url segment and uses that for my $pages-find() query to filter results  

It works. Just figured there might be another way. 

[Sergio]

2 hours ago, John W. said:

Yeah, I understand that. I had to create a page for the document-name, simple php file that redirects to documents/results/human-resources/

Actually is the other way around, the document template should NOT have a PHP file.

So on the Human Resource page, you can loop though its children and display the info you need. I guess is the document title, link to download etc. 

[John W.]

Yup, that is what I'm doing. However, the trouble is I'm using a Page Reference field in another template, which creates a link like /documents/document-category/nameofdocument

Of course, it throws a 404, since "nameofdocument" doesn't exist.

So, what I did, for "nameofdocument", I created a php file for that template that redirects to /documents/results/document-category/.  Since /documents/results/ doesn't have a template it just treats results/ like a url segment. ?

[adrian]

5 hours ago, John W. said:

my documents.php then pulls the 3rd url segment and uses that for my $pages-find() query to filter results

So the $pages->find finds the page in the 3rd url segment and displays the content of that page? I guess I don't understand why that is better than having a template file for the document template - I am sure I am missing something, but maybe if you could better explain what you are actually trying to accomplish by doing it this way we might be able to offer some other/better alternatives.

[John W.]

On 9/18/2019 at 9:48 PM, adrian said:

So the $pages->find finds the page in the 3rd url segment and displays the content of that page? I guess I don't understand why that is better than having a template file for the document template

I don't have a php template for documents.  The non-php template, for documents just holds a title, summary and has pdf attachments available for download.

Therefor, when /documents/ does a query, it finds all the "document" templates and lists them with a title, summary, and links to either view or download a pdf.

See this screenshot:

/documents/ simply does a list like this where visitors can see a date, title, summary and download or view pdf files. the information for each entry is a php-less template with date, title, summary and a file-type pdf field for attaching the pdf.

[adrian]

@John W. - I understand the way the documents template works - to load a summary list of documents, but I still don't understand the problem with PW trying to load the individual document when the document is in the URL - how do users end up with the document component in the URL and what are they supposed to see when it is?