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Authors
  • Sem Tadema
    Sem TademaCTO

SmartenContent is the runtime placeholder engine that resolves dynamic values inside content structures using a record context.

What SmartenContent does

It traverses nested content and replaces {{...}} expressions in strings.

This allows dynamic text in CMS blocks, filters, and query-like structures.

Supported notation styles

{{property=firstname&object=user&relation=owner&defaultValue=John}}

Common parameters include:

  • property: The name of the property or field you want to resolve from the record context (e.g., firstname).
  • object: The object type from which to fetch the property value (e.g., user, candidate). Controls the lookup context of a related record.
  • relation: The name of the relation to traverse in order to fetch a related record before resolving the property (e.g., owner, applied_for).
  • defaultValue: The value to use if resolution fails or the target property is missing/no record found.
  • relationType (primary or all): Determines whether to resolve only the primary related record (primary) or aggregate values from all related records (all).
  • seperator: String used to join multiple values when relationType=all aggregates several results (note: spelling should usually be separator).
  • internal: If true, fetches the internal/raw value (e.g., underlying ID) instead of the display/transformed value.
  • cypher: Enables custom Cypher query injection for advanced graph traversals before value resolution. Used for power user graph queries.
  • user: Context flag for injecting the current user (e.g., for user=uuid), allowing placeholders to resolve based on the active session.
  • failLevel: Determines the error-handling strategy on resolution failure, such as whether to prune just a field, the entire block, or a larger content subtree.

Relation and object-aware resolution

When relation/object context is provided:

  • related records are loaded using the relation
  • values can be aggregated (relationType=all) with separator joining
  • fallback default values are used when no related value resolves

This enables expressive dynamic text beyond simple property interpolation.

Why fail levels matter

failLevel supports higher-level pruning decisions in caller logic (for example CMS tree pruning in PageContent workflows). It helps you decide whether to:

  • remove only a field
  • remove a block
  • remove a parent subtree

based on where smartening failed.

Practical usage recommendations

  • Prefer explicit property, object, and relation parameters in new templates.
  • Use defaultValue for safer public rendering.
  • Use internal=true only when raw/internal values are actually required.
  • Keep placeholders small and deterministic for easier debugging.