Creating a new Field in a Controller

Kirby 2 Solved ✅
1

I have two fields in a page that need to be added together to create a total. I am currently adding the field values together in the template, but would like to move this to a controller to keep the template clean. I have added a field method to format currency that I am using with each of the component fields and would like to use that with the total. Is there any way to create a new Field instance in the controller that I can then use in the template so that I can use the Field methods?

2

You can update the fields like this:

       try {
          page('pagename'))->update(array(
              'title'    => get('name'),
              'degree'   => get('degree'),
              'email'    => get('email')
          ));
        } catch(Exception $e) {
            echo $e->getMessage();
        }

If you include a field that doesn’t exist yet, it will be created. If you assign null to an existing field, it will be deleted.

3

Thanks, that helped. I made a small change since the page is already available in the controller.

try {
  $page->update(array(
    'title'    => get('name'),
    'degree'   => get('degree'),
    'email'    => get('email')));
} catch(Exception $e) {
  echo $e->getMessage();
}
4

Top! I only hope you also changed what fields you are updating and with what data.

btw updating field directly with a get() value is really not good, so bad example by my side

5

Right,

Here is my actual code in case it is helpful to someone.

try {
    $page->update(array(
      'coa_in_state'  => $page->direct_costs_in_state()->int() + $page->indirect_costs_in_state()->int(),
      'coa_out_state' => $page->direct_costs_out_state()->int() + $page->indirect_costs_out_state()->int()));
} catch(Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
}
6

The more I look at it, the more I’m convinced there should be some simple way to load a page model with additional temporary fields for such solutions. I will add that to my todo list.

2 Likes
7

That would be nice. In my case above it isn’t a big deal for the total to be added to the content.txt file. But I have another field that I am changing the formatting for display in the controller. It might be nice to be able to add the formatted value to the $page, but I don’t think I would want that formatted value added to content.txt.