How can I control output order using Low Variables and Playa

Question

I am trying to control the order of my products using Low Variables (2.3.4) and Playa (4.3.3).

I have a Low Variable of type Playa name lv_product_order which I use to output the ids in the following manner.

{exp:low_variables:parse var="lv_product_order"}{entry_id},{/exp:low_variables:parse} 

This gives me entry ids that I selected in the correct order, also including hte additional unnecessary comma. So I tried to than include this in my channel entries loop in the following manner.

    {exp:channel:entries 
        channel="product" 
        disable="member_data|pagination|category_fields" 
        dynamic="off" 
        fixed_order="{exp:low_variables:parse var="lv_product_order"}{entry_id},{/exp:low_variables:parse}"}

This results in the all products being output - even though I only selected a few in the LV Playa field, and order is obviously not preserved either. Template debugging displays the following tag output:

{exp:channel:entries channel="product" disable="member_data|pagination|category_fields" dynamic="off" fixed_order="M40o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr"}

Where does the following hash come from? I expect this to be a list of IDs.

M40o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr

I have the field set to early parsing so I figured this would parse before the channel entry tag. Is this a parsing order issue?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Thomas

Answer 1

This Stack Overflow post has an answer from Low that should work for you.

Here's how: make sure early parsing is enabled for that variable, and then use the variable syntax instead of the tag syntax:

{exp:channel:entries channel="groups" entry_id="{lv-home-groups}"}
code here
{/exp:channel:entries}

Answer 2

Try an embed. In your main template put the embed code to a newly created embed template (in my example, it's 'embed_product_list').

{embed="template-group/embed_product_list" product_ids="{lv_product_order}"}

Then in the embed_product_list template, your opening tag would be:

{exp:channel:entries 
    channel="product" 
    disable="member_data|pagination|category_fields" 
    dynamic="no" 
    fixed_order="{embed:product_ids}"}