External API XML Change

Due to an oversight within the XML return type of the External API, we are creating a change that addresses this. If you migrate from Pro 6.4 or Cornerstone 7.4 to the next minor release and you had the External API enabled you will be placed into Legacy mode by default. You will also receive a warning in the WordPress admin addressing this which is hopefully how you found this doc page. Legacy mode will run the XML processing exactly how it was in the prior version to avoid your site from breaking. However this will be removed in the future and this doc is in place to help you convert to the new system easily.

If you are using the External API, but not using the XML return type you can safely turn off legacy mode. Navigate to "Turning Off Legacy Mode" in this doc to follow the instructions.

What has changed

Initially the XML conversion to JSON placed the attributes in a format . The problem with this is that you can't access attributes if you are looping through a set of tags. Making certain XML's unusable in Cornerstone. To address this the structure is now as follows.

• Content from an xml tag (such as <tag>My Content</tag>) is now grabbed through tag.content. In the prior version it would be just tag.
• Attributes from an xml tag (such as <tag my_attribute="My Attribute"></tag>) is now grabbed through tag.attr.my_attribute. In the prior version it would be tag_attr.my_attribute.
• Grabbing and looping tags works the same way.

Here is another example. Giving the following XML

• If we wanted to grab a Jobs attribute we would use Jobs.attr.advertiser.
• If we wanted to loop through the Field in the Fields tag. We would use Jobs.Fields.Field this is unchanged from how it was.
• If we wanted to grab the content of a Field tag while we were looping through Field tags, we would use {{dc:looper:field key="content"}}
• If we wanted to grab an attribute of a Field tag while we were looping through Field tags, we would use {{dc:looper:field key="attr.name"}}. It was not possible to do this in the prior version

Please feel free to reach out to us in the Forum if you have any questions.

Turning Off Legacy Mode

Navigate to Theme Options > API. Find the toggle XML Legacy Mode and turn this off. Press save and you will be running the new mode.