Standard Global Variables¶

app_build¶

{app_build}

The build date of ExpressionEngine that you are using.

app_version¶

{app_version}

The version of ExpressionEngine that you are using (2.2.0, 2.3.0, etc.).

charset¶

{charset}

This variable will be substituted for the global character set (UTF-8). It is typically used in your META tags to indicate the character encoding:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset={charset}" />

cp_session_id¶

{cp_session_id}

The session id for the control panel. This is the value needed in the “S=” portion of the control panel URL. Only output for logged-in members who have access to the Control Panel. It is typically used for “Edit This” style links:

{if author_id == logged_in_member_id OR logged_in_group_id == "1"}&bull; <a href="{cp_url}?S=0&amp;D=cp&amp;C=content_publish&amp;M=entry_form&amp;channel_id={channel_id}&amp;entry_id={entry_id}">Edit This</a>{/if}

cp_url¶

{cp_url}

The URL to the control panel for this site. Only output for logged-in members who have access to the Control Panel.

current_path¶

{current_path}

This variable outputs the current URI path relative to your ExpressionEngine installation, e.g. news/article/man-captures-all-the-rabbits.

current_time¶

{current_time}

This variable displays the current server time localized to each user’s particular setting. As with other date variables, you will use the standard date variable formatting:

{current_time format="%Y %m %d %H:%i:%s"}

current_query_string¶

{current_query_string}

This variable displays the current security-filtered query string, which can be useful to append to your path variables when you want a link to retain the current query string, e.g.:

gclid=1123581321

current_url¶

{current_url}

This variable displays the full current URL.

debug_mode¶

{debug_mode}

This variable will be substituted with either “on” or “off” based on your debug mode settings.

doc_url¶

{doc_url}

This variable will be substituted with the URL found in URL to Documentation Directory under Admin ‣ General Config.

elapsed_time¶

{elapsed_time}

The amount of time, in seconds, it took ExpressionEngine to render the current page.

email¶

{email}

The email address for the currently logged-in user.

embed¶

{embed=news/local}

This variable allows you to embed one Template within another. Please see the Embedded Templates section.

encode¶

{encode="you@example.com" title="Email Me!"}

This variable will encode the specified email address using javascript and HTML entities to make it more difficult for spam harvesters to grab an email address from your site. If you normally show your email address on your site you are encouraged to use this variable. The title parameter on the variable allows you to specify the text you want to use for the link.

Email Me!

group_id¶

{group_id}

The Member Group ID number for the currently logged-in user.

group_title¶

{group_title}

The title of the member group for the currently logged-in user.

gzip_mode¶

{gzip_mode}

This variable will be substituted with either “on” or “off” based on your output compression settings mode settings.

hits¶

{hits}

This variable will be substituted with the number of hits that any given template containing the variable has received.

homepage¶

{homepage}

This variable will be substituted with the URL to the root directory of your site preference under Admin ‣ General Configuration.

ip_address¶

{ip_address}

This variable will be substituted with the IP address of the currently logged in user.

lang¶

{lang}

This variable will be substituted for the Default XML Language preference under Admin ‣ General Configuration.

layout¶

{layout="news/local"}

This variable allows you to wrap a Template in another. Please see the Template Layouts section.

location¶

{location}

The location (as entered in their profile) for the currently logged-in user.

member_group¶

{member_group}

The Member Group ID number for the currently logged-in user.

member_id¶

{member_id}

The Member ID for the currently logged-in user.

member_profile_link¶

{member_profile_link}

This variable will be substituted with a link to the public profile page for the currently logged in user. The text of the link will be the member’s screen name. For instance, the output might be:

<a href="http://example.com/index.php/member/1/">Joe Smith</a>

password_max_length¶

{password_max_length}

This variable is used the maxlength property of password inputs on login forms:

<input type="password" name="password" maxlength="{password_max_length}" autocomplete='off' />

redirect¶

{redirect='news/local' status_code="301"}

This variable allows you redirect the visitor to another template. Typically this will mean that you will be utilizing the tag within conditionals.

{if segment_3 != 'cookies'}   {redirect='bake/cookies'} {/if}

You can also use the redirect variable to provide tighter control of your URLs, and trigger 404 pages in certain conditions. When you want to display your 404 page, just use “404” for the template. For instance, you might do this on a template group’s ‘index’ template that you do not wish to be displayed if an arbitrary second URL segment exists.

{if segment_2 != ''}   {redirect="404"} {/if}

Be careful that through your redirect variables that you do not create an infinite loop.

The status_code parameter lets you optionally pass a 3xx redirect code (e.g. 301, 302).

screen_name¶

{screen_name}

The screen name for the currently logged-in user.

site_name¶

{site_name}

This variable will be substituted with your site name as defined under Admin ‣ General Configuration.

site_url¶

{site_url}

This variable will be substituted with your site URL as defined under Admin ‣ General Configuration.

template_edit_date¶

This variable displays the localized time for when the template was last updated. As with other date variables, you will use the standard date variable formatting:

{template_edit_date format="%Y %m %d %H:%i:%s"}

total_comments¶

{total_comments}

The total number of comments posted by the currently logged-in user.

theme_folder_url¶

{theme_folder_url}

The URL to your theme folder.

total_entries¶

{total_entries}

The total number of entries posted by the currently logged-in user.

total_queries¶

{total_queries}

The total number of database queries used to generate the current page.

username¶

{username}

The username for the currently logged-in user.

webmaster_email¶

{webmaster_email}

{encode="{webmaster_email}" title="Contact Us"}

The email address for the site, as specified in Email Configuration.

csrf_token¶

{csrf_token}

This variable is a required value for the hidden form field ‘csrf_token’.