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Chapter 8. Templates

The .dtl files are to 70% plain html and just used from frontend modules (Kernel/Modules/*.pm). The .dtl files are located under:

$OTRS_HOME/Kernel/Output/HTML/Standard/*.dtl

The usable dtl tags and syntax are described below.

8.1. Formatting

TAB: We use two spaces for every new open tag. Examples: 


<table>
  <tr>
    <td>Key</td>
    <td>Value</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>aaa</td>
    <td>bbb</td>
  </tr>
</table>
        

<form action ="index.pl">
  <input type="text" value="">
  <input type="text" value="">
  <table>
    <tr>
      <td>Key1</td>
      <td>Value1</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Key2</td>
      <td>Value2</td>
    </tr>
  </table>
  <input type="submit">
</form>

8.1.1. Comment

The dtl comment starts with a # at the beginning of a line and will not be shown in the html output. 


# this can be a comment in the dtl file

8.1.2. $Data{""}

If data params are given to the templates, these params can be printed to the template. 


The name of the author is $Data{"Name"}.

Warning

If the value of the param Name includes html tags, these tags are also shown.

8.1.3. $QData{""}

The same as $Data{""} but the value if the param Name is html quoted (safe). 


The name of the author is $QData{"Name"}.
It's also possible to cut the value. If, for example, you just want to show 20 characters of a variable (result will be "SomeName[..]"), use the following: 


The first 20 characters of the author's name: $QData{"Name","20"}.

8.1.4. $LQData{""}

The same as $QData{""} but with link encoding. This means for example that a space will be a + (e. g. for "a href"). 


<a href="$Env{"Baselink"}&Location=$LQData{"File"}">$QData{"File","110"}</a>

8.1.5. $Env{""}

Env is an environment variable which is usable in more templates at a time. $Data{""} is just availabe for one template. 


The current user name is: $Env{"Userfirstname"}

Some other common variables are:
$Env{"SessionID"} --> the current session id
$Env{"Time"} --> the current time e. g.  Thu Dec 27 16:00:55 2001
$Env{"CGIHandle"} --> the current CGI handle e. g.  index.pl
$Env{"UserCharset"} --> the current site charset e. g.  iso-8859-1
$Env{"Baselink"} --> the baselink --> index.pl?SessionID=...
$Env{"UserFirstname"} --> e. g. Dirk $Env{"UserFirstname"}
$Env{"UserLogin"} --> e. g. mgg@x11.org
$Env{"UserIsGroup[users]"} = Yes --> user groups (useful for own links)
$Env{"UserIsGroup[admin]"} = Yes $Env{"Action"} --> the current action

8.1.6. $QEnv{""}

QEnv is an html quoted environment variable (like Env but quoted). 


The current user name is: $QEnv{"Userfirstname"}

8.1.7. $Quote{""}

A tag to quote html strings. 


Show no html tags, quote this: $Quote{"<hr><b>some text</b></hr>"}

It's also possible to cut the value. If, for example, you just want to show 20 characters of a variable (result will be "SomeMess[..]"), use the following: 


Show no html tags, quote this and show just 20 characters:
$Quote{"<hr><b>some text</b></hr>","20"}

8.1.8. $Text{""}

This tag translates the string (based on the user selected language). 


Translate this text: $Text{"Help"}
Translate this text and insert the given data: $Text{"Change %s settings", "$Data{"Type"}"}

8.1.9. $Config{""}

With this tag you can use config variables in the template. For example the Kernel/config.pm: 


[Kernel/Config.pm]
    # FQDN
    # (Full qualified domain name of your system.)
    $Self->{FQDN} = 'otrs.example.com';
    # AdminEmail
    # (Email of the system admin.)
    $Self->{AdminEmail} = 'admin@example.com';
[...]

And the use in the dtl template: 


The hostname is '$Config{"FQDN"}'
The admin email address is '$Config{"AdminEmail"}'

8.1.10. $Include{""}

If you want to include other dtl templates into a template, use the include tag: 


# include Copyright.dtl
$Include{"Copyright"}

Yet another examlpe: 


<html>
<head>
    <tilte>Some Title</tilte>
# include css.dtl file
$Include{"css"}
</head>

8.1.11. Block

The block tag can be used to define blocks. These blocks can be used several times by the frontend module with different data params. 


<table>
<!-- dtl:block:Row -->
    <tr>
        <td valign="top" width="15%">
        <b>
        $Text{"$Data{"Key"}"}:
        </b>
        </td>
        <td width="85%">
        <div title="$QData{"Value"}">
        $QData{"Value","160"}
        </div>
        </td>
    </tr>
<!-- dtl:block:Row -->
</table>

The html code can be displayed in template blocks in the frontend: 


# get article
my %Article = $Self->{TicketObject}->ArticleGet(
    ArticleID => $ArticleID,
);

# file blocks
foreach (qw(From To Cc Subject)) {
    if ($Article{$_}) {
        $Self->{LayoutObject}->Block(
            Name => 'Row',
            Data => {
                Key => $_,
                Value => $Article{$_},
            },
        );
    }
}

# process template
my $HTMLOutput = $Self->{LayoutObject}->Output(
    TemplateFile => 'AgentZoomBody',
    Data => {
        %Article
    },
);

8.1.12. set

With this tag you can set a variable in the dtl template. 


<dtl set $Data{"Test"} = "Some Text">

8.1.13. if

It's also possible to use a really "simple" (ne|eq|=~|!~) if condition. 


<dtl if ($Text{"Lock"} eq "Lock") { $Data{"Language"} = "en"; }>

Or with a regexp. 


<dtl if ($Text{"Lock"} =~ "/text/i") { $Data{"Lala"} = "Matched"; }>

This template function can still be found in several OTRS templates but will be removed in future versions of OTRS. The removal is necessary as a sequence control in the templates is not desired. The function should thus not be used any more.

8.1.14. system-call

If you want the output of a system call back to a dtl variable. 


# execute system call
<dtl system-call $Data{"uptime"} = "uptime">
# print
The output of 'uptime' is: $Data{"uptime"}

Yet another example: 


# execute system call
<dtl system-call $Data{"procinfo"} = "procinfo | head -n1 ">
# print
The output of 'procinfo' is: $Data{"procinfo"}

Usable to set: $Data{""}, $Env{""} and $Config{""}.

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