Translated Combined Values

The “Translated Combined Values” attribute is the multilingual variant of the Combined Values attribute. It combines values from multiple attributes into a stored text value — separately per language. When translated source attributes are used, the combined value is calculated using the language-specific variant of the source fields. The values are stored in the translation table tl_metamodel_translatedtext.

Typical use cases:

• Combining first and last name in language-dependent order (e.g. “Hans Müller” in German, “Müller Hans” in other languages)

• Combined identifiers based on translated source attributes

• Language-specific search or display values

See also

The monolingual variant of this attribute is described under Combined Values.

See also

Information on multilingual support in MetaModels can be found on the Multilingual Support in MetaModels page.

Installation

The attribute is installed via the Contao Manager or Composer:

composer require metamodels/attribute_translatedcombinedvalues

Settings when Creating the Attribute

In addition to the general attribute settings (name, column name, description, override variants), the translated combined values attribute offers the following specific options:

Option	Description
Format	sprintf format string that defines how the source values are combined. A placeholder %s must be present for each selected field value. Examples: %s, %s → “Müller, Hans” %s (%s) → “Product A (Category B)” %s-%s-%s → “2024-01-15” All placeholder variants of sprintf are possible (see https://www.php.net/sprintf).
Fields	Selection of source attributes in the order in which they are inserted into the format. In addition to MetaModels attributes, system meta-fields are also available: ID, PID, sorting, timestamp, variant group, variant base.
Force update	If this checkbox is active, the combined value is automatically regenerated whenever one of the source attributes changes. The field is then displayed as read-only in the backend.

Settings in Render Settings

The attribute has no specific render settings. In the attribute list of a render setting, the usual options are available:

Option	Description
Template	Selection of a custom template for the output of the combined value.
CSS class	Optional CSS class added to the output element.

Settings in the Input Form

When the attribute is added to an input form, the following options are available:

Display

Option	Description
Backend class	CSS classes for the display of the field in the backend form (e.g. long for full width).
Template for backend	Selection of a custom widget template for the backend form.
Template for frontend	Selection of a custom widget template for frontend editing (only available if the “Frontend Editing” extension is installed).

Functions

Option	Description
Required field	Makes the field a required field.
Always save	The field is saved even if its value has not changed. Set automatically when “Force update” is active.

Overview (backend filter and search)

Option	Description
Filterable	The attribute is available in the backend as a filter criterion.
Searchable	The attribute is available in the backend as a search field.

Filter Rules

Filter rule	Note
Text search	Free text input for searching within the combined value of the active language.
Simple lookup	Filters by an exact or partial value via a URL parameter.
Single select	Selection of a value from a list of existing combined entries.
Multi-select	Multiple selection from a list of existing combined entries.
Register	Filters by the initial letter of the combined value.
Levenshtein-based search	Similarity search with typo tolerance; requires the package attribute_levenshtein.
Loupe	Full-text index search; requires the package filter_loupe (from MM 2.4).

Special Functions

Database storage

The combined values are stored per language in tl_metamodel_translatedtext (fields: att_id, item_id, langcode, value as varchar(255)). No column is created in the MetaModel table.

Language-dependent combination

The combination is calculated separately per language. When translated attributes are used as source fields (e.g. “Translated text”), the language-specific values of the respective source attribute are automatically used.

Fallback language

If a combined value is missing for a language, MetaModels falls back to the fallback language.

Uniqueness with automatic numbering

If “Unique values” is active, MetaModels checks separately per language whether the combined value already exists. For duplicates, a counter is automatically appended: Müller, Hans (2), Müller, Hans (3), etc.