Guide 04 · Developer docs

Input types, layouts, components and images

The platform's central abstraction, in one line: an input type defines what an editor can enter, a layout area binds one input type to a named slot, a layout groups areas and points at a template, a record or component holds the content for each area, and the template reads it back. Read this book straight after the template languages.

L1–L3

Unit 06 of 09 5 pages

Rendering areas in templates

Updated 23/10/2026 01:44

The methods a template calls to read layout areas, the same on every record that has them: what each returns, what it costs, and how to tell an empty area from a filled one. For template developers working in Smarty or Twig.

A template normally prints a layout area with the shorthand, {$page->intro} in Smarty and {{ page.intro }} in Twig, which the next unit covers together with live preview. This unit is the explicit form underneath it, the getters: what a template calls when it needs an argument, a method on the result, or the stored text inside an HTML attribute.

Read the area getters page first. It shows that one set of methods serves pages, book pages, blog posts, product descriptions, custom entity records and components, gives every getter with what it returns when an area is filled, empty or missing, and ranks the calls by cost. The pages after it take the getters by what they return: text, multiselect values and dates first, then the areas that point at an image, a file, a record or a component.

The introspection page is for shared components that adapt to how an author set up an area, and for reading attributes. End with testing for empty: it gives the test for each getter and the one check that covers every category. Images in depth follow later in this guide.

In this unit

Read in order

01 The area getters and what each costs One set of getters reads areas on every record that has them: pages, book pages, blog posts, product descriptions, custom entity records, global components and components. Every getter, what it returns when an area is filled, empty or missing, and what each call costs. 02 Text, multiselect values and dates The shorthand prints a text area's value and getAreaHtml is its explicit form; getAreaText returns what the author stored, for attributes and comparisons; getAreaValues returns a multiselect's keys as an array and getAreaDate a date object. What each returns, the empty case, and the patterns for class lists and dates. 03 Images, files, records and collections The getters for areas that point at something: an image, a file, one record or several, a component or a collection. What each returns when the layout area is empty, which ones run a query, and where the images and collections units take over. 04 Area introspection, raw content and attributes Getters most templates never need: the type, category and editor of a layout area, for components that adapt to how an author configured it; the raw content objects the typed getters are built on; and the accessors that read an area's attributes. 05 Testing whether an area is empty An area can be empty in four ways, and the getters report it as null, an empty string or array, a blank object or an empty collection. The test for each getter, the one check that covers every category, and why empty() is never true for an object in Smarty.