Updating Field of Content Item upon Assembling Item

Rhythmyx Technical Discussion
1

Hi there.

I’m wondering if Percussion is able to update a field of a content item (say, a sys_HiddenInput field) based on the results of the item’s assembly.

For example, if an item renders a slot during its assembly, does Percussion have a method (accessible via Velocity) that would let me store the number of items that the slot returned to a hidden field of that item.

The code might look something like this:

$rx.some_object.setFieldValue($sys.item,"hidden_field",$sys.currentslot.relresults.size())

The use case I have in mind is to store the number of items that an auto-index returns on the auto-index itself, and then (1) display that metadata in inline variants that link to the auto-index and (2) hide that auto-index in dropdowns if it returns no items.

Maybe other folks can think of more situations where this ability would be useful.

Thanks.

2

there are save methods… never used them though.

You can use these Inspection Macros to find out the exact method names.

If memory serves, you’d want to do something like:

$someItem.getProperty(‘rx:field_name’).setValue($some_value)

and then something like:

$someItem.save()

Again, it’s been a while since I’ve inspected the Item and Property classes so I may have the methods wrong.

3

Just a quick update…

I’ve found that you cannot update a content item from Velocity, since Percussion has not implemented any of the JSR-170 save/set methods. However, you can create a database template that writes back to the content items it assembles (basically, the database template just writes back to the Percussion repository). In my case, I’m using “self-referencing” database templates to store how many and what items an auto-index lists, and whether the next incremental publish should include the auto-index. I use this metadata to check if an auto-index is empty before including it in a list of links, and if it is not empty, to display how many items the auto-index lists next to its link.