Finding properties like _title, _description

[Meddysong]

In templates I see things like

{$category->_title}

and

{$category->_description|raw}

What I'd like to do is be able to find out for myself what properties different variables have. There might be some useful ones, but if I don't know about them, I can't  use them.

I seem to understand that the trick might be to use

{{var_dump($variable);}}

or 

{{var_export($variable);}}

within the template but what displays isn't particularly readable. And when I do this for $category, there's certainly no mention of _title or _description in the output.

I found something which produces a much more readable result:

{{highlight_string("<?php\n\$category =\n" . var_export($category, true) . ";\n?>");}}

But the result, again, doesn't actually include things that I'm looking for:

<?php
$category =
IPS\cms\Categories36::__set_state(array(
   '_url' => 
  IPS\Http\Url\Friendly::__set_state(array(
     'base' => 'front',
     'seoTemplate' => 'content_page_path',
     'seoTitles' => 
    array (
      0 => 'ready-willing-able',
    ),
     'friendlyUrlComponent' => 'eab/people/ready-willing-able',
     'isInternal' => true,
     'isFriendly' => true,
     'url' => 'https://xxx/eab/people/ready-willing-able/',
     'data' => 
    array (
      'scheme' => 'https',
      'host' => 'xxx',
      'port' => NULL,
      'user' => NULL,
      'pass' => NULL,
      'path' => '/eab/people/ready-willing-able/',
      'query' => '',
      'fragment' => NULL,
    ),
     'queryString' => 
    array (
    ),
     'hiddenQueryString' => 
    array (
      'app' => 'cms',
      'module' => 'pages',
      'controller' => 'page',
      'path' => 'eab/people/ready-willing-able',
    ),
  )),
   '_catTitle' => NULL,
   '_catTitleLangKey' => NULL,
   '_lastCommentTime' => false,
   '_permsMashed' => true,
   '_updatePaths' => false,
   '_childrenResults' => 
  array (
    '9c6977b56dbfa37e0223c7ff8abd362e' => 
    array (
    ),
  ),
   '_permissions' => 
  array (
    'perm_id' => 769,
    'perm_view' => '*',
    'perm_2' => '*',
    'perm_3' => '4',
    'perm_4' => '4',
    'perm_5' => '',
    'perm_6' => '4',
    'perm_7' => '4',
  ),
   '_originalPermissions' => 
  array (
    'perm_id' => 769,
    'perm_view' => '*',
    'perm_2' => '*',
    'perm_3' => '4',
    'perm_4' => '4',
    'perm_5' => '',
    'perm_6' => '4',
    'perm_7' => '4',
  ),
   'noCopyButton' => false,
   'contentPostedIn' => 
  array (
    '7fa135d0e3284065b0e8fc6efe8791ea' => 
    array (
      12 => 12,
      13 => 13,
      16 => 16,
    ),
    '052798cd3cdb2b38d443595369b750b2' => 
    array (
      12 => 12,
      13 => 13,
      16 => 16,
    ),
  ),
   '_followData' => NULL,
   'queued' => NULL,
   '_data' => 
  array (
    'id' => 199,
    'database_id' => 36,
    'name' => 'Ready, Willing & Able,Pretaj, Volemaj, Kapablaj',
    'parent_id' => 0,
    'last_record_id' => 12,
    'last_record_date' => 1501958376,
    'last_record_member' => 2,
    'last_record_name' => NULL,
    'last_record_seo_name' => NULL,
    'position' => 4,
    'records' => 3,
    'records_queued' => 0,
    'record_comments' => 0,
    'record_comments_queued' => 0,
    'has_perms' => 1,
    'show_records' => 1,
    'furl_name' => 'ready-willing-able',
    'meta_keywords' => '',
    'meta_description' => '',
    'forum_override' => 0,
    'forum_record' => 0,
    'forum_comments' => 0,
    'forum_delete' => 0,
    'forum_forum' => 0,
    'forum_prefix' => '',
    'forum_suffix' => '',
    'page_title' => '',
    'full_path' => 'ready-willing-able',
    'last_title' => 'Tim Testing',
    'last_seo_title' => 'tim-testing',
    'allow_rating' => 0,
    'fields' => '{"1":"135","2":"143","3":"144","4":"168"}',
    'records_future' => 0,
    'record_reviews' => 0,
    'record_reviews_queued' => 0,
    'options' => 0,
    'template_listing' => 'listing',
    'template_display' => 'display',
    'override_sort' => '0',
    'override_lang' => 1,
    'can_view_others' => 1,
    'create_permissions' => NULL,
  ),
   '_new' => false,
   'changed' => 
  array (
  ),
   'skipCloneDuplication' => false,
));
?>

What is it I need to do to get a result which will explain to me that the variable $category has properties including _title and _description?

(Sorry, I'm throwing around words like 'property' maybe incorrectly. I hope my explanation of what I'm looking for is otherwise clear.)

[newbie LAC]

It's a magic

You can use something like 

{{$class = new \ReflectionClass($category); $methods = array_map(function($method) { return $method->name; }, array_filter($class->getMethods(\ReflectionMethod::IS_PUBLIC | \ReflectionMethod::IS_PROTECTED), function($method) { return mb_substr($method->name, 0, mb_strlen('get_')) == 'get_'; })); var_dump(array_combine(array_map(function($method) { return mb_substr($method, mb_strlen('get_')); }, $methods), array_map(function($method) use($category) { $key = mb_substr($method, mb_strlen('get_')); return $category->$key; }, $methods)));}}

 

[Meddysong]

1 hour ago, newbie LAC said:

It's a magic

Thank you for sharing the trick, magician ?

I've just tried it (using $category) and the result is:

array(8) { ["fields"]=> array(4) { [1]=> string(3) "135" [2]=> string(3) "143" [3]=> string(3) "144" [4]=> string(3) "168" } ["_template_listing"]=> string(7) "listing" ["_template_display"]=> string(7) "display" ["_stripTagsTitle"]=> string(32) "d22da11e733659cde0a519b537ff03c5" ["_formattedTitle"]=> string(32) "d22da11e733659cde0a519b537ff03c5" ["_sortBy"]=> NULL ["_sortOrder"]=> string(4) "DESC" ["_filter"]=> NULL } 

I can make sense of most of it, seeing the four field IDs used in this category, the template names etc. No sign of things like _title, _description though.

Is there somewhere in the main files where this would be set out? (I tried searching _title earlier but as you might imagine there were about a billion hits.) If I see an example of how this is set out, I'll have a better idea of where to look/what search term to use next time.

[newbie LAC]

46 minutes ago, Meddysong said:

I can make sense of most of it, seeing the four field IDs used in this category, the template names etc. No sign of things like _title, _description though.

I updated the post

 

[Meddysong]

That worked perfectly - thank you! (If you'd given me ten years I still wouldn't have had time to work that out for myself ? )

[opentype]

Looks like magic to me as well. ?

[Daniel F]

5 hours ago, newbie LAC said:

It's a magic

You can use something like 

{{$class = new \ReflectionClass($category); $methods = array_map(function($method) { return $method->name; }, array_filter($class->getMethods(\ReflectionMethod::IS_PUBLIC | \ReflectionMethod::IS_PROTECTED), create_function( '$v', 'return mb_substr($v->name, 0, mb_strlen(\'get_\')) == \'get_\';' ) )); var_dump(array_combine(array_map(function($method) { return mb_substr($method, mb_strlen('get_')); }, $methods), array_map(function($method) use($category) { $key = mb_substr($method, mb_strlen('get_')); return $category->$key; }, $methods)));}}

 

Nice snippet, just a minor suggestion:  create_function is deprecated since PHP 7.2, which more and more people are using, so it's time to forget it and use closures instead

[newbie LAC]

13 hours ago, Daniel F said:

Nice snippet, just a minor suggestion:  create_function is deprecated since PHP 7.2, which more and more people are using, so it's time to forget it and use closures instead

Updated!