Setting a GET Parameter as a Variable in Typoscript

Recently I had a problem that, in spite of many “support leads” on other sites, was hard to figure out. All I wanted to do was reference as GET parameter in a URL as a variable in Typoscript. After many failed attempts, I found a solution to my problem. So, for future reference, and for all others who may be struggling with this problem, here is a slice of example code that solved my problem:

lib.featured < plugin.tt_news
lib.featured {
    code >
    code = LIST
    pid_list >
    pid_list = 10064
    catImageMode = 1    
    catTextMode = 0
    categorySelection = TEXT
    categorySelection.data = GPvar : cat
    categoryMode = 1
    limit = 1
    singlePid = 1729
    general_stdWrap.crop = 300 |<img src="fileadmin/templates/news/images/featured.png" class="tag" /> ... | 1
    templateFile = fileadmin/templates/ext_templates/tt_news_student_life_feature.html
}

What I was trying to accomplish was changing news categories on a single page so that different news would display on a page simply by changing a category number. The two lines you should pay attention to above are:

categorySelection = TEXT
categorySelection.data = GPvar : cat

Here, the code “GPvar : cat” will get the value of a GET parameter named “cat” out of a URL like this:

http://www.example.com/index.php?id=7565&cat=19

What I discovered was that, in order to use the GET parameter in Typoscript, I needed to type the variable in Typoscript before it could be referenced. Hence the “categorySelection = TEXT” code.

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