Salesforce B2C Commerce 24.7 > Developing Your Site > Development Components > Templates > ISML

isset Element

Define and set a user-defined variable.

Syntax

<isset
  name  = var_name                   \\required
  value = var_value                  \\required
  scope = "session"|"request"|"page" \\required
/>

name = var_name

Allowed data type: expression or string.

var_name specifies the name of a user-defined variable. The rules for naming user-defined variables are:

The identifier must start with a letter (a-z, A-Z).
Any following character can be a letter, number, or underscore.
User-defined variables are case-sensitive.

value = var_value

var_value specifies a value to be stored in the variable. It can be any value.

scope = "session"|"request"|"page"

session variables are available across multiple requests within a session.
request variables are available for the current internal Salesforce B2C Commerce request. The request variable isn't available for multiple requests, so it isn't available after an interaction continue node.
page variables are available for the current ISML page.

The default scope is the session.

The pdict variable is deprecated. Instead, use the scope="request" variable. The pdict variable isn't available for multiple requests, so it isn't available after an interaction continue node.

Purpose

In B2C Commerce, every user-defined variable is of a specific scope, which defines the visibility and lifetime of the variable. B2C Commerce distinguishes between user-defined variables of the request, pdict, session and page scope.

Scope session means that the variable is accessible to all templates during a particular storefront session. The lifetime of a session variable ends with a session. A session variable can be used in expressions.

The first occurrence of <isset> in a template declares and sets the variable, there is no other special tag needed for declaration. If the variable already exists, <isset> resets it to the specified value.

Note: If no scope is set when setting the variable, the scope is set to session.

Examples: Using Isset to Create a Custom Variable

Example 1

This example shows how <isset> is used to define and initialize the variable color. The value of color is the string #A0CC99.

<isset name="color" value="${'#A0CC99'}">

Example 2

If a variable was already defined by a former <isset> tag (first line), a second <isset> resets the value of the variable (second line).

<isset name="counter" value="${0}" >
<isset name="counter" value="${counter + 1}">

Example 3

In this example <isloop> is used to get products from the Pipeline Dictionary.

<isloop iterator="${pdict.ProductPagingModel.pageElements}" alias="LoopProduct" begin="0" end="2">

Example 4

This example shows how <isset> assigns the value of LoopProduct to Product.

<isset name="Product" value="${LoopProduct}" scope="request">

You can also manipulate a value, as shown here:

<isset name="brandsPerCol" value="${Math.floor(numOfBrands/4) + 1}" scope="page">

You can print the value with <isprint>.

Examples: Accessing Custom Variables

Example 1: Accessing the Page Scope

In this example, isset sets the decorator template to pt_empty if the pdict format attribute is set to ajax and to the pt_account template if it's not. The DecoratorTemplate variable that is set is accessed by ${DecoratorTemplate}.

<isset name="DecoratorTemplate" value="account/pt_account" scope="page"/>
<isif condition="${pdict.CurrentHttpParameterMap.format.stringValue == 'ajax' || pdict.CurrentHttpParameterMap.pwr.stringValue == 'true' || pdict.CurrentHttpParameterMap.source.stringValue == 'search' || pdict.CurrentHttpParameterMap.source.stringValue == 'quickview' || pdict.CurrentHttpParameterMap.source.stringValue == 'cart'}">
	<isset name="DecoratorTemplate" value="util/pt_empty" scope="page"/>
</isif>

<isdecorate template="${DecoratorTemplate}">