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LookUp Tokens Explained

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Often you need a placeholder which should be resolved at runtime with a real value from elsewhere.

In Dnn / 2sxc this is called a Token, and they usually look like [Source:Property].

Simple Example

As example could be [DateTime:Now] which would be resolved to the current date/time at runtime. You would use this in a Query to filter out news which should be published in future, so PublicationDate < [DateTime:Now].

Note

There is also a TokenEngine which uses the same Token mechanism to generate HTML. What you see here also applies to that, but it's actually a separate topic.

Some Token Examples

  1. [Portal:PortalId] would return the current portal Id
  2. [App:Settings:PageSize] would return the page size as configured in app-settings
  3. [QueryString:Id] would retrieve the id-parameter from the url
  4. [MyConfiguration:ProductId] would retrieve the id as configured in the UI by the user
  5. [MyConfiguration:productId||27] would also try to get the id, but return 27 if not found

Token Basics

A token is a piece of text that looks like [Source:Property], which will be replaced by an engine so that it will then be a value. For example, [QueryString:Page] is replaced with 2 if the current url has ?page=2 in it. You can research more about tokens in older docs here and in the full list of standard tokens, it's a standard Dnn concept.

Internally it uses a LookUp-Engine which itself uses LookUp-Sources - see [](Abyss.Parts.LookUp.Index.

Special Token Features in 2sxc/EAV

The EAV and 2sxc have enhanced Tokens to a new level with these features:

1. Sub-Tokens

A token like [App:Settings:PageSize] will go through a tree of info-objects to find an inner property if it exists. This only works on special object types that are specifically meant to provide sub-data.

2. Fallback

A token like [QueryString:page||1] will deliver the url-param, and if that is empty, will deliver 1. Note that you need 2 pipe symbols | because the convention is that after the first pipe you can have a format specifier like #.##.

3. Stacking

Stacking with more Tokens: a token like [QueryString:PageSize||[App:Settings:PageSize]] will try the first token, and if it doesn't resolve, try the next one

4. Recursion

A token can resolve into a token, which would then be looked up again. So if a token [MyConfiguration:Page||1] is used, and the setting Page is not a number but again a token like [QueryString:Page], then it will...

  1. resolve Settings:Page and find Querystring:Page
  2. resolve QueryString:Page and maybe find something
  3. if that is empty, return the fallback 1

Advanced Token Sources in Special Scenarios

Some situations will have token sources beyond the default. For example, when configuring data sources they always have 2 more sources

  • In - used like [In:Default:PageSize]
  • MyConfiguration - used like [MyConfiguration:PageSize]
  • There is another special override-token system which is used for testing

Also Read

History

  1. General Tokens introduced in 2sxc 1.0
  2. Most enhancements were in 2sxc 07.00
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