Text and formatting
Use these filters to prepare human-readable text and to escape values for HTML or XML. Choose the escaping filter for the output type: HTML, XML, JSON and URL output have different rules.
Standard Liquid filters
These filters are provided as standard by the Liquid language. They are available anywhere Govforms accepts a Liquid template.
| Filter | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
append(string) | Appends string to input Concatenates string to the end of input. | {{ "Hello" | append: " World" }} → Hello World |
capitalize() | Capitalizes first letter of string Makes first character uppercase, rest lowercase. | {{ "hello world" | capitalize }} → Hello world |
downcase() | Converts string to lowercase Makes all characters lowercase. | {{ "HELLO" | downcase }} → hello |
escape() | HTML escapes string Escapes HTML special characters. | {{ "<script>" | escape }} → <script> |
escape_once() | HTML escapes string only if not already escaped Prevents double-escaping of HTML. | {{ "<div>" | escape_once }} → <div> |
lstrip() | Removes whitespace from left side Trims whitespace from beginning of string. | {{ " hello" | lstrip }} → hello |
newline_to_br() | Converts newlines to HTML breaks Replaces \n with <br> tags. | {{ "line1\nline2" | newline_to_br }} → line1<br />
line2 |
normalize_whitespace() | Normalizes whitespace Replaces each run of whitespace characters with one space. | {{ "Hello World" | normalize_whitespace }} → Hello World |
number_of_words(mode) | Counts words in text Counts whitespace-separated words. Use "cjk" or "auto" to count CJK characters appropriately. | {{ "one two three" | number_of_words }} → 3 |
prepend(string) | Prepends string to input Concatenates string to beginning of input. | {{ "World" | prepend: "Hello " }} → Hello World |
remove(substring) | Removes all occurrences of substring Removes every instance of substring from input. | {{ "Hello World" | remove: "l" }} → Heo Word |
remove_first(substring) | Removes first occurrence of substring Removes only the first instance of substring. | {{ "Hello World" | remove_first: "l" }} → Helo World |
remove_last(substring) | Removes the last occurrence of a substring Removes only the final instance of the supplied substring. | {{ "Hello Hello" | remove_last: "Hello" }} → Hello |
replace(search, replacement) | Replaces all occurrences of search with replacement Substitutes every instance of search string. | {{ "Hello World" | replace: "World", "Universe" }} → Hello Universe |
replace_first(search, replacement) | Replaces first occurrence of search with replacement Substitutes only the first instance of search string. | {{ "Hello Hello" | replace_first: "Hello", "Hi" }} → Hi Hello |
replace_last(search, replacement) | Replaces the last occurrence of text Substitutes only the final instance of the search string. | {{ "Hello Hello" | replace_last: "Hello", "World" }} → Hello World |
rstrip() | Removes whitespace from right side Trims whitespace from end of string. | {{ "hello " | rstrip }} → hello |
split(separator) | Splits string into array Divides string at separator characters. | {{ "a,b,c" | split: "," }} → ["a", "b", "c"] |
strip() | Removes whitespace from both sides Trims whitespace from beginning and end. | {{ " hello " | strip }} → hello |
strip_html() | Removes HTML tags from string Strips all HTML markup, leaving text content. | {{ "<p>Hello</p>" | strip_html }} → Hello |
strip_newlines() | Removes newline characters Removes \n and \r characters from string. | {{ "line1\nline2" | strip_newlines }} → line1line2 |
truncate(length, ellipsis) | Truncates string to maximum length Cuts string at length, optionally adding ellipsis. | {{ "Hello World" | truncate: 8, "..." }} → Hello... |
truncatewords(word_count, ellipsis) | Truncates to maximum word count Cuts string after specified number of words. | {{ "Hello World Test" | truncatewords: 2 }} → Hello World... |
upcase() | Converts string to uppercase Makes all characters uppercase. | {{ "hello" | upcase }} → HELLO |
xml_escape() | Escapes text for XML Replaces XML special characters with safe entity references. | {{ "<item>A & B</item>" | xml_escape }} |
Govforms filters
These filters are added by Govforms for service-building and data-handling tasks.
| Filter | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
decompress_text(base64_brotli_string) | Decompresses Brotli-compressed text stored as base64 Decodes a base64 string containing Brotli-compressed UTF-8 text, such as HTML generated by the Generate HTML action. | {{ actions.myHtmlAction.compressedHtml | decompress_text }} |
field_to_text(field_value, field_id, field_defs, part_id) | Converts field value to display text Formats field value according to field type for display. | {{ my_field_value | field_to_text: "field1", form.fieldDefs }} |
form_to_text(form, newlines) | Converts form data to formatted text Creates human-readable text summary of form data. | {{ form | form_to_text: 2 }} |
lookup_item_id(item_text, field_id) | Gets the ID for a choice item by display text Reverse lookup to find choice ID from display text. | {{ "Option A" | lookup_item_id: "my_field" }} |
lookup_item_label(item_id, field_id) | Gets the display text for a choice item by ID Looks up choice text from field definition using the choice ID. | {{ "choice1" | lookup_item_label: "my_field" }} |
remove_empty_strings(object) | Removes empty strings from objects recursively Cleans objects and arrays by removing properties whose value is an empty string. | {{ form_data | remove_empty_strings }} |