Make a component linkable or not based on the dialog - aem

Question

I have a component and want to give authors the option in the dialog to add a link path. If this link path is filled in, then I want the component wrapper to be an <a> tag. If it's not filled in, I want it to remain a <div>
<div class="section" data-sly-test="${!properties.path}">
<img src="${properties.icon}" alt="${properties.alt}" />
<div data-sly-test="${properties.heading}">
<h2 data-sly-element="${properties.headingSize}">${properties.heading}</h2>
</div>
</div>
<a href="${properties.path}" class="section" data-sly-test="${properties.path}">
<img src="${properties.icon}" alt="${properties.alt}" />
<div data-sly-test="${properties.heading}">
<h2 data-sly-element="${properties.headingSize}">${properties.heading}</h2>
</div>
</a>
Is there a cleaner way to do this than creating two separate build outs of the whole component with a data-sly-test switch? I've struggled on a lot of examples like this where the wrapping tag/div is changed by the dialog. Looking for something similar to how data-sly-element behaves on the <h2> within my code here.

Answer 1

There are multiple ways to achieve what you are trying to do.
Using data-sly-element and data-sly-attribute
data-sly-attribute doesn't add the attribute to the tag if the value of the attribute is empty/null. Hence, it can be used as shown below to replace the anchor tag with a div if the path is unavailable.
<a class="section" data-sly-attribute.href="${properties.path}" data-sly-element="${properties.path ? 'a' : 'div'}">
<img src="${properties.icon}" alt="${properties.alt}" />
<div data-sly-test="${properties.heading}">
<h2 data-sly-element="${properties.headingSize}">${properties.heading}</h2>
</div>
</a>
Using data-sly-unwrap
Unwrap only removes the containing tag and doesn't remove all the inner tags. Hence, this can be used as shown below.
<div class="section" data-sly-unwrap="${properties.path}">
<a href="${properties.path}" class="section" data-sly-unwrap="${!properties.path}">
<img src="${properties.icon}" alt="${properties.alt}" />
<div data-sly-test="${properties.heading}">
<h2 data-sly-element="${properties.headingSize}">${properties.heading}</h2>
</div>
</a>
</div>
Using data-sly-template and data-sly-call
This is similar to what you have initially written, but instead of duplicating the entire inner HTML, it can be moved to a template and called twice.
<div class="section" data-sly-test="${!properties.path}">
<sly data-sly-call="${tpl}"></sly>
</div>
<a href="${properties.path}" class="section" data-sly-test="${properties.path}">
<sly data-sly-call="${tpl}"></sly>
</a>
<!--/* The template */-->
<template data-sly-template.tpl="">
<img src="${properties.icon}" alt="${properties.alt}" />
<div data-sly-test="${properties.heading}">
<h2 data-sly-element="${properties.headingSize}">${properties.heading}</h2>
</div>
</template>
For more information on HTL Block statements, refer this official doc.