Templates
Often you don't just want random text in a field. For example in a blog type, the text field should be a mix of different templates that include different sizes and types of posts. Templates and template variables let you construct these text templates creatively and even context based by using field variables.
Field Variables
You can include other fields from the same entry into a string with template variables. Here's an example:
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{
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"users": [
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{ "id": 1, "firstname": "Mike", "slogan": "Hi, I'm {{field.firstname}}. How can I help you?" },
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{ "id": 5, "firstname": "Lucy", "slogan": "Visit my homepage: www.{{field.firstname|lower}}.com" }
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]
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}
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As soon as Blowson detects template variables in a string, it will repeat those template string in all entries. You will not have random text anymore.
The result will be something like this:
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{
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"users": [
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{ "id": 1, "firstname": "Mike", "slogan": "Hi, I'm Mike. How can I help you?" },
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{ "id": 2, "firstname": "Tom", "slogan": "Hi, I'm Tom. How can I help you?" },
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{ "id": 3, "firstname": "Jeff", "slogan": "Visit my homepage: www.jeff.com" },
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{ "id": 4, "firstname": "Kim", "slogan": "Hi, I'm Kim. How can I help you?" },
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{ "id": 5, "firstname": "Lucy", "slogan": "Visit my homepage: www.lucy.com" }
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]
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}
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Relationship Fields
What makes field variables really powerful is that fields can be referenced from a relationship. So for example if you have a type user and a type message (anonymous message to the user), than you can use a field from the user in the message to create messages that fit the context. Something like:
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{
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"users": [
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{ "id": 1, "firstname": "Mike" },
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{ "id": 2, "firstname": "Alex" },
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{ "id": 5, "firstname": "Lucy" }
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],
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"messages": [
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{ "id": 1, "user_id": 1, "text": "Hi {{field.user.firstname}}, well done. Congrats!" },
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{ "id": 2, "user_id": 2, "text": "Hi {{field.user.firstname}}, well done. Congrats!" },
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{ "id": 25, "user_id": 5, "text": "Hello {{field.user.firstname}}, don't stop what you're doing!" }
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]
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}
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Connected Entries
Another way to use relationships to your advantage, is to use the
connected variable type. So for example if you have a comments type and a posts type and comments point to posts, you can get the count of comments on each post like this:1
{
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"posts": [
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{ "id": 1, "text": "Bla ...", "commentCount": "{{connected.comments|count}}" },
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{ "id": 2, "text": "Bla ...", "commentCount": "{{connected.comments|count}}" },
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{ "id": 50, "text": "Bla ...", "commentCount": "{{connected.comments|count}}" }
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],
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"comments": [
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{ "id": 1, "post_id": 1, "text": "Some text ..." },
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{ "id": 2, "post_id": 2, "text": "Some text ..." },
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{ "id": 200, "post_id": 50, "text": "Some text ..." }
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]
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}
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By using
connected, you always get an array back. If you don't use a filter, the array entries will be joined like this: val1, val2 and val3. You can use all the array filters to collapse the array to a single value, for example: {{connected.flights.score|max}}Filters
The available filters are:
Filter
Value Type
Original
Filtered
slug
String
Test String
test-string
lower
String
Test String
test string
upper
String
Test String
TEST STRING
capitalize
String
test string
Test String
plural
String
Dog
Dogs
singular
String
Cats
Cat
md5
String
MyPassword123
973D98AC221D7E433FD7C417AA41027A
slug
String
Test String
Test String
md
String
# Markdown
<h1>Markdown</h1>round
Number
3.14
3
floor
Number
3.14
3
ceil
Number
3.14
4
plus:1
Number
3
4
plus:10
Number
3
13
minus:1
Number
20
19
minus:10
Number
20
10
times:2
Number
3
6
times:4
Number
3
12
max:10
Number
11
10
min:10
Number
3
10
date:YYYY
Date
2018-03-24
2018
num:0o
Number
2
2nd
optional
Any
Test
count
Array
[1, 2, 5, 7]
4
max
Array
[1, 2, 5, 7]
7
min
Array
[1, 2, 5, 7]
1
sum
Array
[1, 2, 5, 7]
15
avg
Array
[1, 2, 5, 7]
3.75
rand
Array
[1, 2, 5, 7]
5
The date filter uses the
date-fns library to format your dates. For example if you want to only show the year of a date field created, do it like this: {{field.created|date:YYYY}}Similar to the date filter, the number filter uses the
Numeral.js library. An example: would result in something like 1st (with id = 1).You can combine multiple filters, so for example you can do something like
{{word.noun|capitalize}} {{word.noun|capitalize|optional}} {{number|optional}} to generate a product names that is either one word, one word with a number, two words or two words with a number, all words capitalized.Defaults
Additionally you can use the
? option to define a default value, in case the field you're referencing is optional. This could look like this:1
{
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"files": [
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{ "id": 1, "width": 250, "height": 100, "url": "https://imgplaceholder.com/{{field.width?250}}x{{field.height?100}}" },
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{ "id": 2, "width": 500, "height": 250, "url": "https://imgplaceholder.com/{{field.width?500}}x{{field.height?250}}" },
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{ "id": 5, "url": "https://imgplaceholder.com/{{field.width?400}}x{{field.height?200}}" }
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]
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}
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Random Variable
Sometimes you need to be able to choose a random variable. You can do this with the or operator:
||. Here's an example from the kitchensink: {{field.var3||field.var4|upper||field.var10|avg}}. This will randomly choose either field var3, field var4 in all uppercase or the average of all field var10s.Faker.js API Methods
Additionally to all of the above features, you have access to all Faker.js (three parts) and Chance.js (two parts) methods with the
fake key. Just a few examples: {{fake.lorem.sentence}}, {{fake.system.fileName}}, {{fake.finance.transactionType}}, {{fake.dollar}}, {{fake.month}}Regex Patterns
A currently experimental feature is the support for Regex based patterns to generate content. Blowson uses the amazing RandExp library to generate content based on Regex patterns. Here's an example:
{{/(sun|mon|tue|wednes|thurs|fri|satur)day/}}. As closing curly braces can't be used inside the template curly braces, we are using a special bold unicode closing curly brace inside the Regexes, an example: {{/Lo{2,10❵l/||/Fe{2,10❵t/}}. This will probably change in a future release however, as it's quite a hack!Sentence Construction
And finally, to enable you to create semi random sentences, you can use
{{word.noun}}, {{word.a_noun}}, {{word.nouns}}, {{word.adjective}}, {{word.an_adjective}} and {{number}} to creatively construct them. (You can insert whole sentences and paragraphs if you want: )Last modified 3yr ago