Parser errors introduced in MODX 3.2.0

[frischnetz]

Bug report

Summary

Nesting in conjunction with output modifiers breaks in MODX3.2.0 in cases that worked in 2.8.8

Step to reproduce

This is an example to create a filtering statement only in case the placeholder [[+filter]] is not empty:

[[+filter:isnot=``:then=`
  &tvFilters=`news-kategorie==%[[+filter:commaToString=`%||news-kategorie==%`]]%`
`]]

Observed behavior

The plain content of the placeholder was printed:
Pressemitteilung

Expected behavior

The expected output should be:

&tvFilters=`news-kategorie==%Pressemitteilung%`

This was also the observed output in MODX 2.8.8

Environment

MODX 3.2.0, PHP 8.4

[hugopeek]

You are not alone.

I've only started migrating projects to MODX 3 last year, so I'm still being bitten by this issue every now and then. I know that changes have been made to the parser that breaks syntax that worked in 2.x.

Some examples of what I ran into:

Broken:

[[[[+pagination:eq=`1`:then=`$overviewSettingsPagination`]]]]

Fixed:

[[$overviewSettings[[+pagination:eq=`1`:then=`Pagination`]]]]

---

Broken:

[[pdoCrumbs?
    &showHome=`1`
    &tplWrapper=`breadcrumbOuter`
    &tpl=`breadcrumbRow`
    &tplHome=`breadcrumbHome`
    &tplCurrent=`breadcrumbCurrent`
    &outputSeparator=``
    [[+alias_visibility:isnot=`1`:then=`&where=`[{"alias_visible:!=":"0"}]``]]
]]

Fixed:

[[pdoCrumbs?
    &showHome=`1`
    &tplWrapper=`breadcrumbOuter`
    &tpl=`breadcrumbRow`
    &tplHome=`breadcrumbHome`
    &tplCurrent=`breadcrumbCurrent`
    &outputSeparator=``
    &where=`[[+alias_visibility:isnot=`1`:then=`[{"alias_visible:!=":"0"}]`:else=``]]`
]]

---

I used the If snippet in some cases as a workaround.

Broken:

[[[[+content:contains=`</table>`:then=`loadAssets? &component=`table``]]]]

Fixed:

[[[[If?
    &subject=`[[+content]]`
    &operator=`contains`
    &operand=`</table>`
    &then=`loadAssets? &component=`table``
]]]]

Broken:

[[+segment_type:notempty=`
<div class="ui [[+padding]] [[+alignment]] [[+segment_type]] [[+background:setBackground]] text segment">
    [[+content]]
</div>
`:empty=`
    [[+content]]
`]]

Fixed:

[[If?
    &subject=`[[+segment_type]]`
    &operator=`notempty`
    &then=`
    <div class="ui [[+padding]] [[+alignment]] [[+segment_type]] [[+background:setBackground]] text segment">
        [[+content]]
    </div>
    `
    &else=`[[+content]]`
]]

---

It seems that patterns like this have become fragile:

[[*fb_autoresponder_toggle:eq=`1`:then=`
    ...placeholders with more conditional stuff...
    ...especially loose backticks like &someProperty=`hey`
`]]

And also mosquito nesting is affected. This used to work:

[[[[If?
    &subject=`[[!isEditor]]`
    &operator=`notempty`
    &then=`$richTextMessage?
        &heading=`[[+heading]]`
        &content=`[[+value]]`
        &message_type=`[[+message_type]]`
        &size=`[[+size]]`
        &close=`[[+close]]`
    `
]]]]

...but I guess the uncached isEditor throws a wrench in the parser here. The only option here was to revert mosquito nesting, which means the richTextMessage element is always being processed now:

[[!If?
    &subject=`[[!isEditor]]`
    &operator=`notempty`
    &then=`[[$richTextMessage?
        &heading=`[[+heading]]`
        &content=`[[+value]]`
        &message_type=`[[+message_type]]`
        &size=`[[+size]]`
        &close=`[[+close]]`
    ]]`
]]

---

I ran into some other issues with heavily nested elements where the rendering order seems to have changed, leaving placeholders unevaluated. I guess this is partly my own fault for making things too complicated, and for not listening to Bob Ray. He always advocated to keep things simple and move conditional logic to snippets as much as possible. Still good advice today :)

For reference, here is some history regarding the parser changes:

#16288
#16316
https://community.modx.com/t/modx3-broken-output-filter-modifiers/5906/7

[pbowyer]

I've had the same experience as @hugopeek, migrating a MODX2 site I didn't build to MODX3. Many of the snippet calls had to be rewritten. I didn't record them as I went but the one I can find was:

[[pdoResources?
              &parents=`8`
              [[*latestNews:notempty=`
              &resources=`[[*latestNews]]`
              `]]
              &tpl=`newsItemTpl`
              &limit=`2`
              &sortby=`{"publishedon":"DESC"}`
              &includeTVs=`articleTitle, articleImage`
              &processTVs=`articleImage`
]]

which I ended up converting to:

[[*latestNews:ne=``:then=`[[pdoResources?
              &parents=`8`
              &resources=`[[*latestNews]]`
              &tpl=`newsItemTpl`
              &limit=`2`
              &sortby=`{"publishedon":"DESC"}`
              &includeTVs=`articleTitle, articleImage`
              &processTVs=`articleImage`
]]`:else=`[[pdoResources?
              &parents=`8`
              &tpl=`newsItemTpl`
              &limit=`2`
              &sortby=`{"publishedon":"DESC"}`
              &includeTVs=`articleTitle, articleImage`
              &processTVs=`articleImage`
]]`]]