Embed variable not parsing in channel:entries loop

Question

I'm passing a variable into an embed file. I can output the value of the variable inside the embedded template no problem but when I use it in an channel:entries loop I'm not getting a result. Hard coding a value returns a result. Any thoughts?

<p>Member ID {embed:member_id}</p>
<?php $skills = array() ; ?>
{exp:channel:entries 
    channel="logbook"
    orderby="date"
    sort="desc"
    dynamic="no"
    author_id="{embed:member_id}"
    disable="categories|category_fields|member_data|pagination"
}
    <?php $skills[] = array('skill' => "{log_skill}{url_title}{/log_skill}", 'badge' => "{log_skill}{skill_badge}{/log_skill}"); ?>
    {/exp:channel:entries}

<script>
    var skills = <?php  echo json_encode($skills); ?>
</script>

Answer 1

I have a sneaky suspicion that the previous page you are embeding from is using something like this:

{embed="foo/bar" member_id="{member_id}"}

{member_id} is a standard global var and does not get parsed until after your embed. So essentially what that embed code does is this:

<p>Member ID {member_id}</p> {!-- {embed:member_id} is replaced with {member_id} tag--}
<?php $skills = array() ; ?>
{exp:channel:entries 
    channel="logbook"
    orderby="date"
    sort="desc"
    dynamic="no"
    author_id="{member_id}" 
    {!-- so the channel entries is literally looking for "{member_id}" not the 
         value of the tag --} 
    disable="categories|category_fields|member_data|pagination"
}

This would explain why it works for the first statement (it gets parsed later and outputs the correct value) but doesn't work for the channel entries loop.

A possible solution you can have is installing this plugin and modify your embed tag to look something like this:

{embed="foo/bar" member_id="{logged_in_member_id}"}

This all has to do with ExpressionEngine's tricky parse order.