Explanation of Syntax?

[mark]

Could someone give me hand with some code here. An explanation of the code syntax is needed.
Here's the context of the code from: issue.tpl

Code: Select all

 {if $hasAccess}
                {foreach from=$article->getGalleys() item=galley name=galleyList}
                        <a href="{url page="article" op="view" path=$article->getBestArticleId($currentJournal)|to_array:$galley->getGa\
lleyId()}" class="file">{$galley->getLabel()|escape}</a>
                {/foreach}
                {/if}


Specifically, I'm studying .....

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{url page="article" op="view" path=$article->getBestArticleId($currentJournal)|to_array:$galley->getGa\
lleyId()}


I know url is a customize function in TemplateManager, as is to_array. I know what $article and $gallery are too.
I've learned that to_array is basically a call to func_get_args (I read up on this, but I'm not sure how it functions in a smarty template file)

but I can't figure out

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path=$article->getBestArticleId($currentJournal)|to_array:$galley->getGalleyId()


What do the "|" and ":" do? Is that Smarty syntax or PHP syntax? It's very hard to search for their meaning because most search engines seem to ignore "|" and ":" as search terms.

Overall, I'm working on code that wants to emulate what the above code does with a slight twist. But I can't seem to make it work in the same way.

[jmacgreg]

Hi Mark,

Actually, this is a good excuse for me to dig a little deeper into Smarty syntax. I came up with the following explanation from http://www.smarty.net/manual/en/language.modifiers.php:

Variable modifiers can be applied to variables, custom functions or strings. To apply a modifier, specify the value followed by a | (pipe) and the modifier name. A modifier may accept additional parameters that affect its behavior. These parameters follow the modifer name and are separated by a : (colon). Also, all php-functions can be used as modifiers implicitly (more below) and modifiers can be combined.

There are a number of examples on the above page.

Cheers,
James