CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

I wonder if the display name has the same Smarty capability as message templates. I would like to use the Nick Name if it exists. Otherwise, I'd like to use the First Name. I tried setting display name to the following, but it doesn't work:

{contact.individual_prefix}{ }
{if isset({contact.nick_name}) }
  {contact.nick_name}
{else}
  {contact.first_name}
{/if}
{ }{contact.middle_name}{ }{contact.last_name}{ }{contact.individual_suffix}
My desired output would be "Bill Smith", but the code above results in "Bill William Smith" if nick name="Bill" and first name="William".
is if...then...else a capability of "display name", or is there another way to achieve what I am trying to do?

Removing the braces around contact.first_name also doesn't work. For example, for first_name==William, nick_name==Bill, last_name==Smith, now display name gets set to

"if isset(Bill) Bill Smith"

It appears that the function isset() is not getting evaluated, but simply getting inserted into the result. Interestingly, however, if nick_name is not set, the function works fine.

Perhaps if..then..else is not supported in the "display_name" field generation?