Advanced Uses in Workspaces

Key Concepts

It is possible to define multiple workspaces that have their own associated objects. This allows flexible and powerful handling of variables.

Example

The text to be parsed can belong to an object that can be bound to a workspace.

Suppose that we have the following structure

Object_1:
workspace = workspace_1
text = “Hi, my name is Davina. My email address is {{ email }}, my phone number is
{{ phone }}, my Skype id is {{ skype}} and my var 4: {{ this.var_4 | $”VAR_NOT_FOUND” }}“

Object_2:
workspace = workspace_2
text = “Hi, my name is Davina. My email address is {{ email }}, my phone number is
{{ phone }}, my Skype id is {{ skype}} and my var 4: {{ this.var_4 | global.var_4 | $”VAR_NOT_FOUND” }}“**

when parsing the above structure, the results should be

Object_1:
text = “Hi, my name is Davina. My email address is [email protected], my phone number is
+44-7123-456789 and my Skype id is [email protected] and my var_4: VAR_NOT_FOUND”

Object_2:
text = “Hi, my name is Davina. My email address is [email protected], my phone number is
+44-7123-456789 and my Skype id is [email protected] and my var_4 value_4”

Explanation

Object_1 is bound to workspace_1

Object_2 is bound to workspace_2
Object 2 belongs to Object 1. Variables associated with Object 2 will be searched for
in the following workspaces: workspaces_2, workspace_1, global.

If the workspace of variable is not defined, the parser will search first in workspace_2. If the
variable is not defined in workspace_1, it will search in workspace_1. If the variable is not defined in workspace_1, it will search in the global workspace.

Object 1: variables associated with Object 2 will be searched for in the following workspaces: workspace_1, global.

This search order in workspaces defines the principle of workspace scopes.

To force the parser to search for a variable only in the current object workspace context, a special workspace reserved name this is used in the form this.var.

With this usage, the user can define the search order as shown in the above example for var_4. var_4 is not defined in Object_2. The alternative is global, and var_4 is defined in global. global workspace var_4 is returned. Because var_4 is not defined in Object_1, the alternative is text VAR_NOT_FOUND is returned.

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Important

The global workspace is always the last workspace to be searched in for a variable.