How to make expression engine not encrypt plugin output

Question

I am building a plugin that takes variables from the url's query string and renders out the appropriate category ids, but when I tried testing out a category that I know exists and place the plugin tag inside the category parameters.

{exp:channel:entries channel="products" category="{exp:test_plugin}"}
   {title}
{/exp:channel:entries}

It outputs some hash:

{exp:channel:entries channel="product" category="M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr" dynamic="no"}

But when I place the plugin tag outside of the category parameter it prints out the number. Here's my plugin so far.

class test_plugin {
   public $return_data = "";
   public $c;
   public $s;
   public $m;
   public $t;

public function __construct($tagdata = NULL){
    $this->return_data = 28;
}



function type_name(){
    return $this->t;    
}

public function usage()
{
    ob_start();
    ?>
        :)

    <?php
    $buffer = ob_get_contents();

    ob_end_clean();

    return $buffer;
}
}

How would I get it to print out the actual category number?

Answer 1

This just happens in really trick situations. You probably have more than one instance of the same tag on different parsing levels: one inside another tag and other one outside all of them.

The template parser replaces all the instances of the plugin with the placeholder M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr, to avoid run it over and over again, and then, because they are at different levels, it tries to parse the exp:channel:entries before to replace the placeholder back.

You can remove the different instance you're probably using for testing. If this isn't an option, add a false parameter to the instance inside the exp:channel:entries opening tag.

{exp:channel:entries channel="products" category="{exp:test_plugin random}" parse="inward"}

This will make the two instances to be different, so they will not be replaced by a placeholder and your plugin will run again.

Answer 2

Scrap it. I suggest using Low's Seg2Cat. Tried and True. Gives a ton of other variables too that you can use throughout your templates.

Answer 3

I think maybe it's an parse order issue.

{exp:channel:entries channel="products" category="{exp:test_plugin}" parse="inward"}

See the docs: https://ellislab.com/expressionengine/user-guide/templates/plugins.html#changing-parsing-order