Named values

A named value is a value worked out by the portal and read by name, as values.<name>, in any action list or logic flow. A VAT rate, a greeting, a price list from a flow: each is written once and kept for a while.

A value

A value lives in values/<name>.yaml. The file’s name is the value’s name: letters, digits and _, starting with a lower-case letter.

yaml

name:
  ro: Cota TVA
  en: VAT rate
cache: install
ttl: 3600
value: "1.19"

A value is one of:

• value: an expression;
• flow: a flow’s outputs, with flow: { id, inputs }. Read one output as values.<name>.<output>.
• http: what a service answers, with http: { connector, path, query }.
  • It is a GET through a web connector.
  • The value is the answer’s body.
  • An answer that is not 2xx fails it.
  • A value kept for the whole portal or a site cannot use a connector that each person connects themselves.
• collection: the published entries of a content collection, with collection: <id>.
  • Each entry is id, slug and values.
  • It is read before the list runs, and is as fresh as the value’s ttl.
  • Only a public collection that visitors may read can be a value, since a value may reach anyone. Each entry’s values are shown in the run’s language.

A value never reaches the portal’s files: a value kept for others must not hold what only some people may read.

How long it is kept

cache says for whom a value is kept, and ttl how many seconds (1 to 86,400; 300 when left out):

cache	Kept for	Its expression may read
install	The whole portal	locale, now, other install values
site	Each site	as above, and site and site values
user	Each signed-in person	as above, and user and user values
none	Nobody: worked out every time	everything above

A value is kept per language too. A value kept for a site or the whole portal never sees the person, even inside a flow it calls: what it keeps is the same for everyone. A value cannot read a value kept for fewer people than it is, and values cannot read each other in a circle. The portal refuses either when the file is saved. A user value is never kept for visitors.

Kept values start afresh whenever the portal’s files change.

When a value fails

Every value a list can reach is worked out before the list runs, each after the values it reads. A value that fails is left out, and the run’s log says why. Reading it is then the action’s error, which its onError can catch.

Values are read as values.<name>. Any other way, such as values["name"], is refused when the file is saved.