I have been on the MySource Matrix forums for quite a few years now. During that time, I have seen alot of tips, tricks, advice, and questions. I thought I would share are few.
Date Keywords
In the past, when I wanted to print a customized date for created, updated or published, I would just use a metadata date field, and set up my specific date format, then print that metadata field for that asset. Instead of doing this, you can use the following keyword format:
%asset_created_<PHP DATE>%
%asset_updated_<PHP DATE>%
%asset_published_<PHP DATE>%
So, if I wanted to print the month, day and year that an asset was created, I could use:
%asset_created_F% %asset_created_d%, %asset_created_Y%
List Current Asset ID
This session var (list_current_asset_id) was introduced in Matrix 3.16.6, and has been a feature that I have greatly welcomed. I use this all the time to display an image which is the child or another asset. For example, for all our news items, we store the associated news image a child of that News Item asset. Also, we store profile images as a child of and User assets. Then, you just use a nested asset listing, with the dynamic perimeters set to session variable, with list_current_asset_id as the value. This is very handy, and can even be nested in the type format of an asset listing, so that each asset that is listed will show its child image. This can be seen on our News & Events page. (FYI, our site is going live on July 7, at around 5pm, so this link won't be correct until then.)
So, the dynamic peramiters of your asset listing would look like the follow:
Using Asset Listings With Asset Builder Dynamic Create Locations
When setting up an Asset Builder, and adding dynamic create locations, there are a few things that Martix does not support; any type of sorting of the create location assets (they are sorted by asset ID by default), or permissions based create locations listing.
To achieve either of the two, do the following:
- Set up your dynamic create location
- Add the create location keyword to your custom create form layout
- Preview the Asset Builder, and copy the source code for the dynamic create location select field
- Create a new asset listing using the same root node as your configured dynamic create location
- Configure the asset listing, either for sorting, permissions, or both
- Build the asset listing so it will create a select field, EXACTLY like the one that was printed by the dynamic create location keyword
- Preview the Asset Builder, and have a feeling of satisfaction
