$user variable only available on template file scope ?

[adrianmak]

I have a language switcher function put in a function.php, and which is include in $config->prependTemplateFile

function langbar() {
	$out = "<div class='langbar'>";
	$currentLanguage = $user->language;

	foreach($languages as $language) {
          if(!$page->viewable($language)) continue;
	  $user->language = $language; 
	  if($language->id == $currentLanguage->id)
              $active = "class='active'";
          else 
            $active = "";

          $out .= "<a href='$page->url'>$language->title</a>";        
	}
	$user->language = $currentLanguage;
	$out .= "</div>";
   	return  $out;
}

Then, in the output main.php

<?php echo langbar(); ?>

Nothing Outpputed except the opening and closing div

I tried to echo $user->language; in the main.php and it has the value of current user language.

Does it mean that, I could not have to use a function (to make the template file code more clean) to display a language switcher in template

[nickie]

In functions, use

wire('user')->language

or, in case of module files:

$this->wire('user')->language

[LostKobrakai]

The api variables are only available in the template scope. They aren't global in any way. As soon as you're creating a function you create a new scope, therefore the variable is not accessible anymore. That's the reason for the above posted ways to access the api.

[Soma]

Same issue as you got here https://processwire.com/talk/topic/5857-using-pages-in-custom-function/?fromsearch=1 and lostkobrakai explained there too ...