Hidden templates don't work anymore
Development and Programming
It seems in Expression Engine 3 hidden templates use now as default underscore _ instead of a dot.
So I was trying to move my templates to 3 and just to maintain the same structure I configured them back to a dot as the instructions in the docs: $config[‘hidden_template_indicator’] = ‘.’;
But regardless if you use a dot or underscore I noticed hidden templates don’t work anymore when they are embed in other templates.
When I log into Expression Engine I can access them and my pages also work.
When I log out, visitors can’t see them. This was not so in Expression Engine 2. The hidden templates could not be accessed with a direct url but they still worked as embed. Now they don’t work as embed, the part of the code where the hidden template is supposed to appear is blank. Expression Engine is only showing them for the logged in admin.
I also noticed that as Admin I can actually access them directly like: example.com/folder/.template
This explains why my pages also work, as Admin they are available, but for visitors they are not, so pages using the embeds are not working.
Basically, EE 3 is not outputting or processing hidden templates.
I found the problem after I noticed that no embeds where actually working (hidden or not).
It seems when you create a new hidden template its created without access permissions. This was the reason it was not working. You need to assign them the proper permissions after creating them.
I found the solution here: http://expressionengine.stackexchange.com/questions/34727/embeds-not-working
Well, I guess you learn something new each day 😊
I don’t remember setting any access permissions for hidden templates in EE 2, so I assume this is a new behavior.
I don’t remember setting any access permissions for hidden templates in EE 2, so I assume this is a new behavior.
This is true for all templates, not just hidden ones, and considered a bug. It will be fixed in an upcoming release.