Chapter 7. Built-in Functions

Table of Contents
capture
config_load
foreach,foreachelse
include
include_php
insert
if,elseif,else
ldelim,rdelim
literal
php
section,sectionelse
strip

Smarty comes with several built-in functions. Built-in functions are integral to the template language. You cannot create custom functions with the same names, nor can you modify built-in functions.

capture

capture is used to collect the output of the template into a variable instead of displaying it. Any content between {capture name="foo"} and {/capture} is collected into the variable specified in the name attribute. The captured content can be used in the template from the special variable $smarty.capture.foo where foo is the value passed in the name attribute. If you do not supply a name attribute, then "default" will be used. All {capture} commands must be paired with {/capture}. You can nest capture commands.

Technical Note: Smarty 1.4.0 - 1.4.4 placed the captured content into the variable named $return. As of 1.4.5, this behavior was changed to use the name attribute, so update your templates accordingly.

Caution

Be careful when capturing {insert} output. If you have caching turned on and you have {insert} commands that you expect to run within cached content, do not capture this content.

Example 7-1. capturing template content
{* we don't want to print a table row unless content is displayed *} {capture name=banner} {include file="get_banner.tpl"} {/capture} {if $smarty.capture.banner ne ""} <tr> <td> {$smarty.capture.banner} </td> </tr> {/if}