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

Attribute Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
name	string	no	default	The name of the captured block
assign	string	No	n/a	The variable name where to assign the captured output to

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}