Template / Theme Parsing and Management

TerrorRonin · 03-17-2008, 09:24 AM

I'm curious to how you all work your theme / template engines. Do you use SQL, Flat File, something else? How do you load it within your own framework / cms? Do you just use a single class?

I'm currently developing my framework, so i'm trying to figure out a good method to building my theme engine.

I'm considering doing something similar to wordpress, in the idea of using a /themes/ folder with sub-folders being like /default/, /red-panda/, whatever.

But once I get to that point, I'm curious how to make it as customizable as possible. I don't want to mix and match my html as php (or refrain from it as much as possible), yet I want the user to have full control of display of their content.

If you have any example code, that would be awesome :)

TlcAndres · 03-17-2008, 09:53 AM

Well you gotta narrow down what customization you want the user to have the ability to do. The following is an old class I dug up in my folders it supports variables such as $dog.id $dog.food and <{include=footer.tpl}> it's rather inefficient and handeling it though.

PHP Code:


			
<?php
class mrf_template
{
    private $mrf;
    private $key = array();
    public $template;
    public $cache;
    
    
        public function __construct($mrfClass)
        {
            //accept master class
            $this->mrf = $mrfClass;
            //set template
            $this->template = $this->mrf->db->GetOne($this->mrf->sql['default_template']);
            $this->cache = $this->mrf->root . "Cache/";
            //see if the template does not exists within the file cache
            if(!$this->exists("Templates/".$this->template) && !empty($this->template))
            {
                //the template file path
                $this->temp_root = $this->mrf->root . "Templates/" . $this->template . "/";
                //assign function replacement values
                $this->assign_function('title','__fetch("title")',true);
                $this->assign_function('keywords','__fetch("keywords")',true);
                $this->assign_function('description','__fetch("description")',true);
                $this->assign_function('content','getPage()');
                //assign ariable replacement values
                $this->assign('url',$this->mrf->info('url'));
                $this->assign('temp_url',$this->mrf->info('url') . "Templates/" . $this->template . "/");
                //now parse the file
                $parsed = $this->parse("main.tpl","templates/$this->template");
                //now cache it
                $this->cache("main.php",$parsed,"templates/$this->template");
                unset($parsed);
            }
        }
        
        public function exists($what)
        {
            return (is_dir($this->cache . $what)) ? true : (file_exists($this->cache . $what)) ? true : false;
        }
        
        public function assign($key,$value)
        {
            $this->key['<{'.$key.'}>'] = $value;
        }
        
        public function assign_function($key,$func,$verbose=false)
        {
            $echo = ($verbose) ? 'echo ' : '';
            $this->key['<{'.$key.'}>'] = '<?php ' . $echo . $func . '; ?>';
        }
        
        public function cache($file,$content,$what)
        {
            $what = ucfirst($what);
            
            //ok now make sure it's a folder
            $cache_dir = $this->cache . $what;
            if(!is_dir($cache_dir))
            {
                mkdir($cache_dir,0777);
            }
            
            //if it wasn't it is now..continue forth
            file_put_contents($cache_dir . "/" . $file,$content);
        }
        
        public function parse($file,$what)
        {
            $what = ucfirst($what);
            $oFile = file_get_contents($this->mrf->root . $what . '/' . $file);
            
            //ok first take all the include files
            preg_match_all('$\\<{inc=(.*?)}\\>$',$oFile,$matches);
            $i = 0;
            foreach(next($matches) as $filez)
            {
                $noFile = file_get_contents($this->mrf->root . $what . '/' . $filez);
                $noFile = $this->parse_variables($noFile);
                $oFile = str_replace($matches[0][$i],$noFile,$oFile);
                ++$i;
            }
            //now the file itself
            $oFile = $this->parse_variables($oFile);
            return $oFile;
        }
        
        public function parse_variables($oFile)
        {
                //now split up all the variables and functions
                preg_match_all('/<\\{(.*?)\\}>/',$oFile,$matches);
                $matches = reset($matches);
                foreach($matches as $key)
                {
                    $expf = explode('.',$key);
                    $exp = (is_array($expf)) ? reset($expf) : $key;
                    if(!is_array($this->key[$exp]))
                    {
                        $oFile = str_replace($key,$this->key[$exp],$oFile);
                        //get rid of replace variables
                        unset($matches[$exp]);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        $oFile = str_replace($key,$this->key[$exp][$expf[1]]);
                        unset($matches[$exp]);
                    }    
                }
                
                return $oFile;    
        }

TerrorRonin · 03-17-2008, 10:37 AM

Well, I wan't the ability for the user to display how exactly the content of the site is displayed...

An example being, my old theme engine was something similar to:
include header.php

html stuff here
{$content}

include footer.php

And then it had a few variables it would parse for, and replace, ie {$title}, {$content}, {$copyright}, etc..

But the content would display based on page, and would show a static <h1>Page Title</h1>... etc... so they had to code their html and css to match my engine.. which wasn't completely a bad investment, but it lacked a lot of customization, as there was only so much they could do.

So now I was to give them complete control over everything.. ie

I want my news to look like this:
<h1><font color="#ffff00">News: </font> {$post_title}</h1>
{$post_content}

etc..

And then it would be able to change on any type of page in any environment..

This engine will be used for AT LEAST the following type of sites:
High School Homepage
Clan Gaming Site
Stock Market Education
African Safari Information Page

So obviously, all of those pages are completely different in how many pages, whether they're pages such as "Members List", or just an informative amount of text, etc..

So I need to allow for quite a bit of customization.

Any more help would be awesome !

ReSpawN · 03-18-2008, 04:49 PM

It seriously sounds like you're in the market for SMARTY. :) I think you should check out their class and kinda modify it to suit your needs. (no need to reinvent the wheel is my vision)

TlcAndres · 03-18-2008, 07:17 PM

While smarty is certainly nice, what if you don't need all of smarty's power? like the plugin capability and such. In this case simply rolling your own templating system would do the trick.

flyingbuddha · 03-18-2008, 07:31 PM

Here's how I do it (basic, stripped version):

/interface/functions.php

PHP Code:


			
// template swap
function parse(&$content,$values=array()){
    if(sizeof($values)){
        foreach($values as $find=>$replace){
            $content = str_replace($find,$replace,$content);
        }
        return $content;
    }
}

/modules/index.php

PHP Code:


			
$tpl = file_get_contents(dirname(__FILE__).'/tpl/eg.tpl');
echo parse($tpl,array(
    '{title}' => '[SET TITLE]',
    '{content}' => '',
));

/modules/tpl/eg.tpl

Code:

<h1>{title}</h1>
{content}

TlcAndres · 03-18-2008, 07:47 PM

PHP Code:


			
  foreach($values as $find=>$replace){
            $content = str_replace($find,$replace,$content);
        }

a better method would be..

PHP Code:


			
$keys = array_keys($values);
$vals = array_values($values);
$content = str_replace($keys,$vals,$content);

I'm fairly certain it would be faster then running str_replace x ammounts of times in a loop.