Variables & templates

The action system and message systems within Monni are tightly coupled with a template library called liquidjs. To fully understand how the system works, You'd be doing yourself a favour to read the below terms.

Term	Definition	Example
Variable / Context	A value stored behind a specific identifier or key.	A variable named name storing the value "monni".
Object / Variable / Context	Placeholder which will be replaced with a provided variable.	{{name}} or {{member.name}}
Tag	Markup that controls the logic of the template (loops, conditionals, etc.). They do not output text themselves.	{% if user.is_admin %} or {% for item in items %}
Filter	A method used to modify the output of a variable or text.	{{ "monni" | capitalize }} would capitalize Monni
Template	Text with objects, tags and filters	Hello {{name}}!
Rendered template	Templates which have been rendered.	Before Hello {{name}}! after rendering Hello monni!

Variable substitution

Variable substitution/replacing objects is the simplest operation there is.

Context

name -> Monni
server -> Fish heaven

Template

Hello {{name}}, welcome to {{server}}.

Rendered template

Hello Monni, welcome to Fish heaven.

In most cases variables are what we would usually refer to as objects. Objects are variables which have multiple values. An example of this could be a member who has a name and join date.

Context

member -> {name: "Monni", mention: "<@911945727402471455>", age: 20}
server -> {name: "Fish club", member_count: 252}

Template

Hello {{ member.mention }}, welcome to {{ server.name }}. You are member number {{ server.member_count | plus: 1 }}.

Rendered template

Hello Monni, welcome to Fish club. You are member number 253.

Common Tags

If condition

If conditions allow you to add paths to your template depending on if something is true or false.

Context

name -> Monni
bans -> 20

Template

{% if bans == 0 %}
  {{name}} has no bans.
{% elsif bans == 1 %}
  {{name}} has 1 ban.
{% else %}
  {{name}} has {{bans}} bans.
{% endif %}

Rendered template

Monni has 20 bans.

info

If your message has odd spacing, try adding dashes like in the provided example {%- -%}

For loop

Sometimes variables or objects can contain a list. In these cases being able to go over each element one at a time is useful.

Context

members -> [{name: "monni", cash: 2000}, {name: "dogfish", cash: -20}, {name: "trout", cash: 212}]

Template

Money Leaderboard
{% for member in members %}
	{{ forloop.index }}. {{ member.name }}: {{ member.cash }}
{% endfor %}

Rendered template

Money Leaderboard

1. monni: 2000
2. dogfish: -20
3. trout: 212

Variable tag

Sometimes you may need to make your own variables. In the below example variables are used for sorting a list.

Context

members -> [{name: "monni", cash: 2000}, {name: "dogfish", cash: -20}, {name: "trout", cash: 212}]

Template

{% assign sorted_members = members | sort: "cash" | reverse %}
Money Leaderboard
{% for member in sorted_members %}
	{{ forloop.index }}. {{ member.name }}: {{ member.cash }}
{% endfor %}

Rendered template

Money Leaderboard

1. monni: 2000
2. trout: 212
3. dogfish: -20

info

You can find all of the supported tags and more in-depth information in liquidjs docs

Common filters

Filters edit the variable. This lets you do basic operations like appending text to variables or math. You can even hash the value. Context

number_1 -> 20
number_2 -> 20

Template

numbers: {{number_1}}, {{number_2}}
Plus: {{number_1 | plus: number_2 }}
Minus: {{number_1 | minus: number_2 }}
times: {{number_1 | times: number_2 }}

Rendered template

numbers: 20, 20
Plus: 40
Minus: 0
times: 400

info

You can find a full list in liquidjs docs

Liquidjs support

Most text fields in Monni are treated as templates, hence supporting liquidjs. A good rule of thumb is that if the context of a selector opens below the text box it supports liquidjs.

info

We limit the easy to abuse parts of template rendering heavily, such as loops and memory usage. If you run into issues relating to resource limits please contact us.