Pass first level categories to switchee case value

Question

I need to pass a list of the first level of categories to a nested switchee. The following works when I manually place the nested list. However I would like the client to be able to add/edit categories.

{exp:switchee variable="{segment_2}" parse="inward"}
  {case value="#^P(/d+)$#|category|''"}

    {switchee variable="{segment_3}" parse="inward"}

      {case value="walls|seating|workstation|training|private-offices|ergo|meeting-media-room"}{!--level 1 category listing--}
        first level category listing here
      {/case}{!--level 1 category listing--}

      {case default="yes"}{!--level 2 category listing--}

        2nd level category listing here

      {/case}{!--level 2 category listing--}

    {/switchee}{!--end nested switchee--}


  {/case}{!--listing & category listing--}

  {case value="value" default="yes"}
    single entry here
  {/case}{!--single--}
{/exp:switchee}

When I replace the case value list with the code below it doesn't work. I'm sure it's something to do with parse order, but am stuck. If I place the code below elsewhere in the template it outputs what I need.

{exp:gwcode_categories channel="products" depth="1" style="linear" backspace="1"}{cat_name}|{/exp:gwcode_categories}

Possibly this could be done with Stash, but I've never been able to grok how to use stash.

Answer 1

With Stash:

{exp:stash:set name="categories" parse_tags="yes"}{exp:gwcode_categories channel="products" depth="1" style="linear" backspace="1"}{cat_name}|{/exp:gwcode_categories}{/exp:stash:set}

{exp:stash:parse}
  {exp:switchee variable="{segment_2}" parse="inward"}
    {case value="#^P(/d+)$#|category|''"}

      {switchee variable="{segment_3}"}

        {case value="0|{stash:categories}"}{!--level 1 category listing--}
          first level category listing here
        {/case}{!--level 1 category listing--}

        {case default="yes"}{!--level 2 category listing--}

          2nd level category listing here

        {/case}{!--level 2 category listing--}

      {/switchee}{!--end nested switchee--}

    {/case}{!--listing & category listing--}

    {case value="value" default="yes"}
      single entry here
    {/case}{!--single--}
  {/exp:switchee}
{/exp:stash:parse}

Answer 2

parse="inward" is the villain here. Switchee is being parsed before the exp:gwcode_categories.

Since I believe you need the parameter, your option is to force exp:gwcode_categories to be parsed early. Let's try using embeds.

{embed="group/template" categories="{exp:gwcode_categories channel="products" depth="1" style="linear" backspace="1"}{cat_name}|{/exp:gwcode_categories}"}

Then, on embed:

{exp:switchee variable="{segment_2}" parse="inward"}
  {case value="#^P(/d+)$#|category|''"}

    {switchee variable="{segment_3}"}

      {case value="{embed:categories}"}{!--level 1 category listing--}
        first level category listing here
      {/case}{!--level 1 category listing--}

      {case default="yes"}{!--level 2 category listing--}

        2nd level category listing here

      {/case}{!--level 2 category listing--}

    {/switchee}{!--end nested switchee--}

  {/case}{!--listing & category listing--}

  {case value="value" default="yes"}
    single entry here
  {/case}{!--single--}
{/exp:switchee}

There's yet some room for improvement here. For example, you're checking for segment_3 even if segment_2 is empty.