During development of your merge workflows and templates, you may find instances where you want to alter the output of the variable, or even an entire template section, using a conditional statement. You can use conditional statements anywhere you call Smarty variables; in your document templates, settings fields, field maps, route rules, email and other delivery configurations.
Below is a simple example of using an if statement in the field map of a route or document to transform the $isUpdate value from a “1” to “Yes”, only if the value is 1.
| isUpdate | {if $isUpdate == "1"}Yes{/if} |
You can add elseif / else statements too.
| isUpdate | {if $isUpdate == "1"}Yes{else}No{/if} |
| or | |
| isUpdate | {if $isUpdate == "1"}Yes{elseif $isUpdate == "2"}Unknown{else}No{/if} |
Sometimes you’ll want to include multiple evaluations in your if or elseif statements. You can use “and“, “or“.
| _freeShipping | {if $price > 50 and $state == "CA"}FREE{/if} |
You can also group operations. For example:
| _freeShipping | {if ($price + $tax) > 50 and ($state == "CA" or $state == "TX")}FREE{/if} |
You can also run statements within statements.
| _freeShipping | {if $price > 50}{if $state == "CA" or $state == "TX"}FREE{/if}{/if} |
And you can use Modifiers within statements.
| productNote | {$productNote}{if stristr($name|substr:0:10, "Red"} Color varies slightly.{/if} |
Within HTML templates, uploaded office document templates, and email deliveries, you can use statements to hide/reveal entire sections, tables, table rows, images, etc, based on the incoming data.
{if $color == "Red"}If the value for “color” is “Red”, anything in this section will display.
{elseif $color == "Blue"}This section will show if the value is “Blue”.
{else}This section is shown for any other value, or no value.
{/if}
AVOID EMPTY LINES
To avoid empty lines, it’s best practice to wrap your statements around carriage returns you do not want displayed unless a section is triggered. In the below example, the two outputs vary in the displayed line breaks. Also, in the first example, there’s an additional space if {$address2} is empty.
| CODE | OUTPUT |
|---|---|
{$companyName} {if !empty($address1)}{$address1} {/if}{$address2} {/if}{$city} {if !empty($state)}, {$state}{/if}{$zipcode}{/if} | Joe’s Dozer 12 Main St. Austin, TX 99999 |
{$companyName} {if !empty($address1)}{$address1} {/if}{if !empty($address2)}{$address2} {/if}{if !empty($city) or !empty($state) or !empty($zipcode)}{$city} {if !empty($state)}, {$state}{/if}{$zipcode}{/if} | Joe’s Dozer 12 Main St. Austin, TX 99999 |
HIDE TABLE AND LIST ROWS
You can hide table rows and list items using tableif and listif.
| Address | City | State | Zipcode |
|---|---|---|---|
{tableif !empty($address1)}{$address1} | {$city1} | {$state1} | {$zip1}{/tableif} |
{tableif !empty($address2)}{$address2} | {$city2} | {$state2} | {$zip2}{/tableif} |
{tableif !empty($address3)}{$address3} | {$city3} | {$state3} | {$zip3}{/tableif} |
{listif !empty($address1)}Address 1: {$address1}, {$city1}, {$state1} {$zip1}{/listif}{listif !empty($address2)}Address 2: {$address2}, {$city2}, {$state2} {$zip2}{/listif}{listif !empty($address3)}Address 3: {$address3}, {$city3}, {$state3} {$zip3}{/listif}
For more on table and list rows, including looping through them, see Sorting and Looping Through Objects/Arrays.
HIDE TABLE ROWS ALTERNATIVE
There are cases where you may be working within a table in Word, Excel, or HTML where it may make sense to use if, elseif statements to show or hide rows as well. When doing so, unless you have a scoped reason to do otherwise and an clear understanding of your table’s columns/rows layout, you should always open and end your {if …}, {elseif …}, and {/if} in the same column. Typically this would occur at the end of table rows, although in some cases it may make sense in the starting row.
| {$name} | {if !empty($address1)} | ||
| {$address1} | |||
| {$city1} | {$state1} | {$zip1}{elseif !empty($address2)} | |
| {$address2} | |||
| {$city2} | {$state2} | {$zip2}{/if} | |
CHECKBOXES
Checkboxes can be used in HTML and office document templates. To show pre-selected checkboxes, you could accomplish this in a few ways:
{if $answer == "No"}[X] No [ ] Yes{else}[ ] No [X] Yes{/if}
{if $answer == "No"}☒ No ☐ Yes{else}☐ No ☒ Yes{/if}
{if $answer == "No"}☒{else}☐{/if} No{if $answer == "Yes"}☒{else}☐{/if} Yes{if $answer == "No Answer"}☒{else}☐{/if} No Answer