If no match found for selector, then...?

Questions and Help
1

Hi there! I have a snippet I often use on a type of web page, and it responds to that page:

{mechtype={site: text; selector=.proof-name__name}}
{if: contains({=mechtype},"Cover")}
Display all this cover stuff
{else}
Display interior stuff
{endif}

But sometimes I have reason to use the same snippet on a PDF that obviously doesn't have that selector field. What would I do to set up something like "if no match found for selector" and then have it go this way instead:
{formmenu: default=cover; interior; name=mechtypemanual}
{if: mechtypemanual="cover"}Display all this cover stuff (etc.)

And -- is the best way to have the same cover info displayed whether it's triggered by the selector text or the dropdown menu to have it in a separate snippet I import?

Thanks!

2

Hey @megan.gendell ,

Great question! There's two ways you can accomplish this. Both do the same thing, so it's whatever makes the most sense to you.

  1. Use the catch() function: this function basically says "if it's an error, use this default value instead"

{mechtype=catch({site: text; selector=.proof-name__name}, "Backup value")}
{=mechtype}

^^ essentially, the catch does nothing if it's not an error, then uses the backup value if it is an error

  1. Use the iserror() function: this detects if something is an error and returns yes/no. You can use it in an if statement to do what you want.

{mechtype={site: text; selector=.proof-name__name}}
{if: iserror(mechtype)}Display this text if there's an error{else}Display this text if there's not an error{endif}

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3

Thank you! The iserror() seems like the best option here because it will allow me to nest further dropdown menus, if statements, etc in the iserror area. Is there a way to avoid having the "No match found for selector" error message displayed in the snippet, though? I don't want users to feel they've done something wrong or there's a problem -- it should be seamless if they are using this snippet somewhere other than the website that contains this selector.

4

@megan.gendell

I would do two things:

  1. put the {mechtype=...} variable assignment inside of a note with the preview=no setting. That way if there is an error, the error message isn't displayed where the variable assignment happens.
  2. put the output of your mechtype variable inside of the if statement itself so there's no output error either

{note: preview=no}{mechtype={site: text; selector=.proof-name__name}}
{endnote: trim=left}{if: iserror(mechtype)}There was no match from the site selector found, so you'll need to complete other steps including this dropdown menu {formmenu: Option 1; Option 2; Option 3}{else}{=mechtype}{endif}

1 Like
5

Perfect, thank you!
I didn't know about the preview=no setting for notes, I will use this in other ways too. Thanks!

6

Hey! Adding an alternative to Andrews answer. I have used something like this, so that when there is no match it gives a textfield instead

{note: preview=no}{fn={site: text; selector=[aria-label="First Name"]}}{firstname={=extractregex((fn), "[^\s]+")}}{endnote}{if: contains(firstname, "Error")} {formtext}{else}{=firstname}{endif}

2 Likes