Conditional Breaks after 2.9 upgrade

Question

I was successfully using the following block of code until I upgraded to EE 2.9.0.

{exp:query sql="SELECT COUNT( * ) AS itemCount FROM exp_freeform_form_entries_4 WHERE form_field_52 = 'yes'"}
        {if 15 > {itemCount}}
                  <td><label for="setup_1">Mon. Dec. 9, Setup/iron - 9am-noon: {exp:query sql="SELECT 15 - COUNT( * ) AS itemNeeded FROM exp_freeform_form_entries_4 WHERE form_field_52 = 'yes'"}{itemNeeded}{/exp:query} needed </label>
                  <input type="checkbox" name="setup_1" id="setup_1" value="Yes" /></td>
        {if:else}
            <td>Monday 9-noon is full</td>
        {/if}
    {/exp:query}

Now however I get the following error message when I try and load the page:

Error

You have an invalid conditional in your template. Please review your conditionals for an unclosed string, invalid operators, a missing }, or a missing {/if}.

Parser State: Unexpected end of Template “apex/volunteer-form” on line 2; expected ENDIF tag for opening on line 1.

I have carefully checked the page and don't see any missing {/if} or }. Any suggestions for what I am missing here?

Answer 1

I did some experimenting and with some leading questions from Mark was lead to discover that {itemCount} needs to be inside of quotes but not inside of { }.

So the final solution is:

{exp:query sql="SELECT COUNT( * ) AS itemCount FROM exp_freeform_form_entries_4 WHERE form_field_52 = 'yes'"}
        {if 15 > "itemCount"}
                  <td><label for="setup_1">Mon. Dec. 9, Setup/iron - 9am-noon: {exp:query sql="SELECT 15 - COUNT( * ) AS itemNeeded FROM exp_freeform_form_entries_4 WHERE form_field_52 = 'yes'"}{itemNeeded}{/exp:query} needed </label>
                  <input type="checkbox" name="setup_1" id="setup_1" value="Yes" /></td>
        {if:else}
            <td>Monday 9-noon is full</td>
        {/if}
    {/exp:query}

With the conditional as:

{if 15 > "itemCount"}