Accessing Custom Fields in Your Templates

As a custom field is being defined, a basename for the field will be created for you automatically. This basename will serve as the basis for the template tag name used to reference the value contained by that field for the specific entry/page/folder/category in context. A basename is pre-populated for you as a convenience, but can be customized by editing the “Template Tag Name” associated with a custom field.

Movable Type will also present you with a sample template tag that you can cut and paste into a template to display the value of that field for the object in context.

For example, suppose you have a field named “Current Mood” which has a basename of “mood.” You can display the mood field for an entry using the following template tag code:

<mt:Entries>
   <h2><mt:EntryTitle></h2>
   <mt:EntryBody>
   <p>My mood: <mt:EntryDataMood></p>
</mt:Entries>

Note: The template tags used to access data stored within a field can easily be customized.

Display “0”

Movable Type considers the input value “0” to be null. You have to specify directory as below to display “0”.

<mt:If tag="TAG_NAME" eq="0"><mt:TAG_NAME></mt:If>

Accessing and Display Custom Field Assets

Movable Type allows users to define asset specific custom fields. These custom fields allow authors for instance to select or upload a file associated with a page or entry. Once an asset has been selected, a designer may then need to make changes to your design templates in order to display details about that asset, including a thumbnail or other meta data like file size, or mimetype.

To access this information, one can use all of Movable Type’s build in asset related template tags, but before they can do that, the designer must first load the custom field asset into the current context using the custom fields template tag.

Example

Let’s suppose you had a custom field that defined a custom header image, or mast head, for an entry. If the custom field has been given a value, you want to display that image on your blog. The following template code will conditionally display an HTML <img> tag for the related mast head custom field:

<mt:IfNonEmpty tag="EntryDataMastheadImage">
     <mt:EntryDataMastheadImageAsset>
         <img src="<mt:AssetURL />" />
     </mt:EntryDataMastheadImageAsset>
</mt:IfNonEmpty>

Additional Resources

• Learning Movable Type: Image CustomFields in Movable Type 4.1