PHP Template

Sirupsen · 08-12-2009, 11:37 AM

Greetings! I am currently making a few projects, but I am very worried about how I should do my templating system so I do not at some point regret how I did it, and want to recode it!

Basically, I just want to insert informations into my sites easily but also, it shouldn't become a mess with shit loads of php calls inside the HTML. I could pretty easily do something like this:

PHP Code:


			
<?php $articles = $object->fetchArticles(); ?>

<?php foreach ($articles as $article) : ?>

    <h1><?php echo $article['title']; ?></h1>

    <p><?php echo $article['content']; ?></p>

<?php endforeach; ?>

That'd basically just require the fetchArticles method to return an array, containing an array for each article:

Example:

PHP Code:


			
public function fetchArticles() {

   $query = connectToDbAndRetrieveInformation();



   while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {

      $data[] = array(

         'title' => $row['title'],

         'content' => $row['content']

         // And for more fancy stuff something like this:

         'time' => $this->timeDifference($row['time']),

         'author' => $this->authorName($row['author_id'])

      );

   }

   

   return $data;

}

However, this probably is a pretty bad way to do it (I think?), I don't want to use something big as Smarty and have a whole different weird markup (the foreach loops in smarty are just weird) for the foreach loops. (And it's slooow.. And I won't need half the features) I have made some pretty simple stuff involving replacing {something} with a variable set. However, I can't use PHP in the template file (like if I needed to check something before printing something out, like if the user is administrator). Here is what I have currently:

PHP Code:


			
<?php

class Template {

    private $path = 'template/';

    private $values = array();



    private function __set($name, $value) {

        $this->values[$name] = $value;

    }



    public function display($file) {

        $file = $this->path . $file;

    

        $file_content = file_get_contents($file);

            

        foreach ($this->values as $key => $value) {

            $file_content = str_replace('{' . $key. '}', $value, $file_content);

        }    



        echo $file_content;

      }

}

?>

Maybe this could be expanded to be useful?

I hope I can get some help on doing this part properly. :)

Enfernikus · 08-12-2009, 01:28 PM

If you can't use PHP than use Smarty or PHPTal even if you say they're weird they're extremely useful and Smarty isn't that slow with File cahce and opcode code cacher installed.

Sirupsen · 08-12-2009, 01:37 PM

I'm looking for a short introduction, or someone to point me in the right direction of using PHP in a good way for templating. Since I'll learn a lot more from that, than I will by just using Smarty or any of these other engines..

Enfernikus · 08-12-2009, 01:53 PM

Well there are several ways to go about it and my preferred way is something to this effect..

php Code:

$tpl = new PHPTemplate('/path/to/templates/files/');
$tpl->assign('user', 'thisisausername');
$tpl->assign('posts', PostArray);
$tpl->display('blog');

And the template file would look something like this

php Code:

<strong>Hello, <?php echo $user; ?></strong>
Displaying <?php count($posts); ?> posts
<?php foreach( $posts as $post ): ?>
  <strong><?php echo $post['header']; ?></strong>
  <p>
    <?php echo $post['body']; ?>
  </p>
<?php endforeach; ?>

The actual class

php Code:

<?php


class PHPTemplate
{
    private $dir;
    private $data = array();
    
        public function __construct($dir)
        {
            if( is_dir($dir) )
            {
                $this->dir = $dir;
            }else{
                
                throw PHPTemplateException('Directory does not exists');
            }
        }
        
        public function assign($variable, $data)
        {
            $this->data[$variable] = $data;
        }
        
        public function display($template)
        {
            $template = rtrim($template, '.php') . '.php';
            if( file_exists($this->dir . $template) )
            {
                ob_start();
                
                $this->__fetch($this->dir . $template);
                
                ob_end_flush();
                return;
            }
            
            throw PHPTemplateException('File does not exists');
        }
        
        private function __fetch($____FILE)
        {
            extract( $this->data );
            include( $____FILE );
        }
}

class PHPTemplateException extends Exception
{
    public function __construct($message)
    {
        parent::__construct('[PHP Template]:' . $message);
    }
}

Sirupsen · 08-12-2009, 02:14 PM

Thanks a lot! :)

Would it be a bad habbit to use shortcuts here:

PHP Code:


			
<?php foreach( $posts as $post ): ?>
  <strong><?=$post['header']?></strong>
  <p>
    <?=$post['body']?>
  </p>
<?php endforeach; ?>

Edit: I took your class and mixed it with mine, and I'm pretty happy with the result, tell me if I can optimize/improve it further:

PHP Code:


			
<?php
require_once("bootstrap.php");

final class Template {
    private $dir;
    private $data;
    
    private function __clone() {}

    public function __construct($dir='templates/') {
        if(is_dir($dir))
            $this->dir = $dir;
        else
            throw new Exception('Directory does not exists @ Template');
    }
   
    private function __fetch($file) {
        extract($this->data);
        require($file);
    }
    
    public function __set($variable, $data) {
        $this->data[$variable] = $data;
    }

    public function display($template) {
        $template = rtrim($template, '.php') . '.php';
        if(file_exists($this->dir . $template))
            $this->__fetch($this->dir . $template);
        else
            throw new Exception('File: ' . $template . ' does not exist in ' . $this->dir);
    }
}
?>

Enfernikus · 08-12-2009, 03:23 PM

Unless it's your server and your site, it is ALWAYS bad habit to use shortcuts.

hello-world · 08-18-2009, 12:59 PM

I am also confused whether to use smarty or not,whether to use include/require functions or make a custom template class.
I have search many website there always pros and cons arguements about it.

Sirupsen · 08-18-2009, 01:19 PM

I made a rather simple "Framework" recently, as it's really good practise, this is my finished Template class if you'd like to see it.

It's faily simple to use, just browse the sample files. :)

ioan1k · 08-18-2009, 06:21 PM

Line 69 :

php Code:

ob_end_clean();

Should be

php Code:

ob_clean();

ob_end_clean() will clean all buffers started with ob_start() .. any buffer started before parsing the template will be flushed, while ob_clean() will only empty the last buffer started. Cleaning the enter buffer could result in later bugs, if using output buffering for other sections

Sirupsen · 08-18-2009, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ioan1k

Line 69 :

php Code:

ob_end_clean();

Should be

php Code:

ob_clean();

ob_end_clean() will clean all buffers started with ob_start() .. any buffer started before parsing the template will be flushed, while ob_clean() will only empty the last buffer started. Cleaning the enter buffer could result in later bugs, if using output buffering for other sections

Thanks a lot! :D

hello-world · 08-23-2009, 06:23 PM

I have got a question regarding your custom made template.
if you assign in index.php. It doesn't parse included html files.
Can you please tell me how to solove it ?
Index.php