Smarty {capture} returns empty - php

Question

I'm attempting to create a navigation while using smarty for the first time. I want to display all categories except one which I want to capture and use later on.
I got it to work and get the categories and put them in list. However that one category which is being captured, does not display where I want it to display.
my categories
Soccer //
subCat1 // those categories should be captured
subCat2 //
subCat3 //
Rugby
subCat1
subCat2
subCat3
Netball
subCat1
subCat2
subCat3
etc...
so my code goes like this:
<div>
<!-- deal with category levels -->
{if empty($category_level)}
{assign var="category_level" value=1}
{else}
{math equation="x + 1" x=$category_level assign="category_level"}
{/if}
{assign var="captured" value="false"}
{foreach from=$categories item="category"}
{if (strstr($category.name, 'Soccer') == true)}
{assign var="captured" value="y"}
{assign var="capItem" value="soccerCats"} <!-- used it to see whether the condition was met and this code has been run -- this has been assigned corerctly -->
{capture name="soccerCats" assign="soco"} <!-- start capturing if above condition was met -->
{/if}
{if $category.level == $category_level && $category.is_visible == "Yes"}
<ul>
<li class="{$category.name|htmlspecialchars}Cat">{$category.name|htmlspecialchars}<a class="mobileOnly"><i class="fa fa-angle-down fa-fw"></i></a>
{if !empty($category.children)}
<ul>
{assign var="categories" value=$category.children}
{if empty($category_level)}
{assign var="category_level" value=1}
{else}
{math equation="x + 1" x=$category_level assign="category_level"}
{/if}
{foreach from=$categories item="category"}
{if $category.level == $category_level && $category.is_visible == "Yes"}
<li>{$category.name|htmlspecialchars}</li>
{/if}
{/foreach}
{math equation="x - 1" x=$category_level assign="category_level"}
{assign var="category" value=0}
</ul>
{/if}
</li>
</ul>
{/if}
{if $captured == "y"}
{/capture} <!-- end the capture -->
{assign var="captured" value="n"}
{/if}
{/foreach}
{math equation="x - 1" x=$category_level assign="category_level"}
{assign var="category" value=0}
</div>
<!-- I tried to use both ways shown below to display the captured item -->
{$soco}
{$smarty.capture.soccerCats}
any idea why is this happening?

Answer 1

I don't think {capture} works inside {if} tags, and if does, I'd advise against it, for better code readability. Try something like this:
<div>
<!-- deal with category levels -->
{if empty($category_level)}
{assign var="category_level" value=1}
{else}
{math equation="x + 1" x=$category_level assign="category_level"}
{/if}
{foreach from=$categories item="category"}
{capture name="code"}
<ul>
<li class="{$category.name|htmlspecialchars}Cat">{$category.name|htmlspecialchars}<a class="mobileOnly"><i class="fa fa-angle-down fa-fw"></i></a>
{if !empty($category.children)}
<ul>
{assign var="categories" value=$category.children}
{if empty($category_level)}
{assign var="category_level" value=1}
{else}
{math equation="x + 1" x=$category_level assign="category_level"}
{/if}
{foreach from=$categories item="category"}
{if $category.level == $category_level && $category.is_visible == "Yes"}
<li>{$category.name|htmlspecialchars}</li>
{/if}
{/foreach}
{math equation="x - 1" x=$category_level assign="category_level"}
{assign var="category" value=0}
</ul>
{/if}
</li>
</ul>
{/capture}
{if (strstr($category.name, 'Soccer') != true)}
{$smarty.capture.code}
{else}
{$soccercats=$smarty.capture.code} {*Updated with #Borgtex's comment*}
{/if}
{/foreach}
</div>
{$soccercats}
The idea is that you capture everything and if the category is not 'soccer', you display the captured data; otherwise, you assign it to another capture, to use it in the end, outside the loop. The code assumes that there is a single soccer category, as you initially stated in your question.