Liquid is a templating language that you can use to easily build text in your paywall. The simpliest way to get started is simply by referencing a variable with curly brackets. {{ user.firstName }} will output the user’s first name. (Assuming you’ve called setUserAttributes with firstName previously in the SDK).

However, Liquid is much more flexible then simple curly brakets. It also offers “filters” which allow you to operate on the variables before outputting them. Ex: {{ 1 | plus: 3 }} will output 4. They work left to right and do not support order of operations. (You can get around this limitation by using assign).

Liquid syntax formatting

In text, you can use Liquid filters to modify output. To use filters, add a pipe after the variable. Then, add in one or more filters:

// Results in 17, the absolute value of -17
{{ -17 | abs }}

For example, to capitalize a text variable, you would write:

// If the name was "jordan", this results in "JORDAN"
{{ user.name | upcase }}

Custom Liquid filters

To make it easier to express dates & countdowns we’ve added several non-standard filters to our Liquid engine.

date_add

Add a specified amount of time to a date.

Usage:

[date string] | date_add: [number|ms string], (unit)

There are two ways to specify the amount of time to add:

  1. By passing a number and a unit as arguments. The unit can be one of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years. For example, {{ "2024-08-06T07:16:26.802Z" | date_add: 1, "days" }} adds one day to the date.

  2. By using the ‘ms’ style of specifying a duration. This format is flexible but generally you specify a number followed by a unit as part of a single string. Ex: 1d (1 day), 2h (2 hours), 30m (30 minutes), etc. For example, {{ "2024-08-06T07:16:26.802Z" | date_add: "1d" }} adds one day to the date.

You can chain multiple date_add and date_subtract filters together to add or subtract multiple units of time. Ex: {{ "2024-08-06T07:16:26.802Z" | date_add: 1, "days" | date_add: 2, "hours" }} adds one day and two hours to the date.

More Examples:

{{ "2024-08-06T07:16:26.802Z" | date_add_minutes: 30  }}
// Output -> '2024-08-06T07:46:26.802Z'

date_subtract

Subtract a specified amount of time from a date.

Usage:

[date string] | date_subtract: [number|ms string], (unit)

There are two ways to specify the amount of time to subtract:

  1. By passing a number and a unit as arguments. The unit can be one of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years. For example, {{ "2024-08-06T07:16:26.802Z" | date_subtract: 1, "days" }} subtracts one day from the date.

  2. By using the ‘ms’ style of specifying a duration. This format is flexible but generally you specify a number followed by a unit as part of a single string. Ex: 1d (1 day), 2h (2 hours), 30m (30 minutes), etc. For example, {{ "2024-08-06T07:16:26.802Z" | date_subtract: "1d" }} subtracts one day to the date.

You can chain multiple date_add and date_subtract filters together to add or subtract multiple units of time. Ex: {{ "2024-08-06T07:16:26.802Z" | date_subtract: 1, "days" | date_subtract: 2, "hours" }} subtracts one day and two hours from the date.

More Examples:

{{ "2024-08-06T07:16:26.802Z" | date_subtract_minutes: 30  }}
// Output -> '2024-08-06T06:46:26.802Z'

date

Format a date in a specific way.

Usage:

[date string] | date: [format string]

The date filter is a standard Liquid filter that formats a date. You can use it to format a date in any way that Javascript’s default date utility can parse. For example, {{ "2024-08-06T07:16:26.802Z" | date: "%s" }} formats the date as a Unix timestamp. Here are some common date formats:

Common Formats

FormatExample OutputDescription
%s1722929186Unix timestamp
%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S2024-08-06 07:16:26Year, month, day, hour, minute, second
%a %b %e %T %YSun Aug 6 07:16:26 2024Abbreviated day of the week, abbreviated month, day of the month, time, year
%m/%d/%y08/06/24Month, day, year (Common US Format)

Format Reference

FormatExampleDescription
%aTueShorthand day of the week
%ATuesdayFull day of the week
%bAugShorthand month
%BAugustFull month
%d06Zero padded day of the month
%H07Zero padded 24-hour hour
%I07Zero padded 12-hour hour
%j219Day of the year
%m08Zero padded month
%M16Zero padded minute
%pAMAM or PM
%S26Zero padded second
%U31Week number of the year, starting with Sunday
%W31Week number of the year, starting with Monday
%x8/6/2024Locale date
%X7:16:26 AMLocale time
%y24Two digit year
%Y2024Four digit year
%z+0000Timezone offset
%%%Literal %

More Examples:

{{ "2024-08-06T07:16:26.802Z" | date: "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M" }}
// Output ->  '2024-08-06 00:16'

{{ "2024-08-06T07:16:26.802Z" | date: "%B %d, %Y" }}
// Output ->  'August 06, 2024'

{{ "2024-08-06T07:16:26.802Z" | date: "%I:%M %p" }}
// Output ->  '12:16 AM'

{{ "2024-08-06T07:16:26.802Z" | date: "%A, %B %d, %Y" }}
// Output ->  'Tuesday, August 06, 2024'

countdown_from

Calculates and formats the difference between two dates as a countdown.

Usage:

[end_date string] | countdown_from: [start_date string], (style), (max unit)

  • end_date (required): The end date of the countdown.
  • start_date (required): The start date of the countdown. Almost always state.now.
  • style (optional): The style of the countdown. Can be one of digital, narrow, short, long, long_most_significant. The default is digital.
    • digital: Displays the countdown in the format HH:MM:SS.
    • narrow: Displays the countdown in the format 1d 2h 3m 4s.
    • short: Displays the countdown in the format 2 hr, 3 min, 4 sec.
    • long: Displays the countdown in the format 2 hours, 3 minutes, 4 seconds.
    • long_most_significant: Displays the countdown in the format 2 hours, 3 minutes, 4 seconds, but only shows the most significant unit. Ex: 2 hours if the countdown is less than 1 day or 3 days if the countdown is less than 1 month.
  • max unit (optional): The maximum unit to display in the countdown. Can be one of years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, or seconds. The default is hours. This means for a digital countdown of 72 hours would be represented as 72:00:00, rather than 3 days.
  • column (optional): The column to display in the countdown. Can be one of years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, or seconds. This means for a digital countdown with the column set to minutes, the countdown 47:12:03 would be represented as 12.

Common Usage:

// Simple countdown timer
{{ device.deviceInstalledAt | date_add: '3d' | countdown_from: state.now }}
// Output -> '03:00:19'

// Fixed end date, with a message
Our summer sale ends in {{ "2024-08-06T07:16:26.802Z" | countdown_from: state.now, "long_most_significant" }}!
// Output -> Our summer sales ends in 3 days!

// Countdown with a custom column
{{ "2024-08-06T07:16:26.802Z" | countdown_from: state.now, "long", "days", "minutes" }}
// Output -> 12

In practice you will almost always use state.now as the start date. This is a special variable that represents the current time. Referencing it will ensure that the countdown re-renders every second.