Creating a Fast PHP Template System

[litewarez]

Well, I really dont see the point in a template engine that uses repalcements/regex so i have made this tutorial to show you another way.

PHP Is already a template engine, when you write <?php echo $var?> its just like doing <{$var}> or {$var}

Think of it this way, PHP Already translates <?php echo '<b>hello</b>'?> into <b>hello</b> by its engine, so why make it do everything 2 times over.

The way you would implement a template engine is like so

------

Firstly create a template class

    class Template
    {
       var $vars = array();
    
       function __set($key,$val)
       {
          $this->vars[$key] = $val;
       }
    
       function __get($key)
       {
         return isset($this->vars[$key]) ? $this->vars[$key] : false;
       }
    
       function output($tpl = false)
       {
          if($tpl === false)
          {
             die('No template file selected in Template::output(...)');
          }
    
          if(!file_exists(($dir = 'templates/' . $tpl . '.php')))
          {
             die(sprintf('Tpl file does not exists (%s)',$dir));
          }
    
          new TemplateLoader($dir,$this->vars);
          return true;
       }
    } 

This is what you use in your logic such as index.php, you will set data just like an **stdClass** just google it if your unsure. and when you run the output command it sends the data and tpl to the next class below.

----------

And then create a standalone class to compile the tpl file within.

    class TemplateLoader
    {
        private $vars = array();
        private $_vars = array(); //hold vars set within the tpl file
        function __construct($file,$variables)
        {
            $this->vars = $variables;
            //Start the capture;
            ob_start();
               include $file;
               $contents = ob_get_contents();
            ob_end_clean(); //Clean it

           //Return here if you wish
           echo $contents;
        }
    
        function __get($key)
        {
            return isset($this->vars[$key]) ? $this->vars[$key] : (isset($this->_vars[$key]) ? $this->_vars[$key] : false) : false;
        }
    
        function __set($key,$val)
        {
           $this->_vars[$key] = $val;
           return true;
        }

       function bold($key)
       {
          return '<strong>' . $this->$key . '</string>';
       }
    } 

The reason we keep this seperate is so it has its own space to run in, you just load your tpl file as an include in your constructor so it only can be loaded once, then when the file is included it has access to all the data and methods within TemplateLoader.

----------

#Index.php

 <?php
       require_once 'includes/Template.php';
       require_once 'includes/TemplateLoader.php';
    
    
       $Template = new Template();
       
       $Template->foo = 'somestring';
       $Template->bar = array('some' => 'array');
    
       $Template->zed = new stdClass(); // Showing Objects
    
       $Template->output('index'); // loads templates/index.php
    ?>

Now here we dont really want to mix html with this page because by seperating the php and the view / templates you making sure all your php has completed because when you send html or use html it stops certain aspects of your script from running.

----------

templates/index.php

header
      
        <h1><?php $this->foo;?></h1>
        <ul>
            <?php foreach($this->bar as $this->_foo):?>
                <li><?php echo $this->_foo; ?></li>
            <?php endforeach; ?>
        </ul>
         <p>Testing Objects</p>
         <?php $this->sidebar = $this->foo->show_sidebar ? $this->foo->show_sidebar : false;?>
         <?php if($this->sidebar):?>
            Showing my sidebar.
         <?php endif;?>
    footer

Now here we can see that were mixing html with php but this is ok because in ehre you should only use basic stuff such as Foreach,For etc. and Variables.

----------

NOTE: IN the TemplateLoader Class you can add a function like..

function bold($key)
{
    return '<strong>' . $this->$key . '</string>';
} 

This will allow you to increase your actions in your templates so bold,italic,atuoloop,css_secure,stripslashs..

You still have all the normal tools such as stripslashes/htmlentites etc.

Heres a small example of the bold.

$this->bold('foo'); //Returns <strong>somestring</string> 

---------

You can add lots of tools into the TempalteLoader class such as inc() to load other tpl files, you can develop a helper system so you can go $this->helpers->jquery->googleSource

If you have any more questions feel free to ask me.

litewarez Reviewed by litewarez on 1st Jul 2010. Creating a Fast PHP Template System Well, I really dont see the point in a template engine that uses repalcements/regex so i have made this tutorial to show you another way. PHP Is already a template engine, when you write <?php echo $var?> its just like doing <{$var}> or {$var} Think of it this way, PHP Already translates <?php echo '<b>hello</b>'?> into <b>hello</b> by its engine, so why make it do everything 2 times over. The way you would implement a template engine is like so ------ Rating: 5

[litewarez]

Also here are the files that i just put together, there all working and i think all of you should start using such thing in your scripts.

http://rapidshare.com/files/40432365...ngine.zip.html

[Mr Happy]

This is pretty cool. simple but does exactly what you want. I'm not using this right now but I have a project I'm going to give this a go in soon.

[Fred]

its good, but did u check Smarty

Good luck./

[Yawn92]

I'd still prefer smarty over writing my own, mainly because it's pre-written, well tested, easy to use and prolly more efficient than something I would write myself. If you have a huge project, imo, there's no sense re-inventing the wheel by writing your own template engine, when there is more important stuff to do. Plus if for whatever reason smarty doesn't do what you want it to do, you can just write a plugin for it. Just my opinion though

[immortalxx]

Smarty is a template engine with everything u can possibly think of doing.

Example:
In Smarty {$variable} is the same as <?php echo $variable; ?> Smarty basically makes it a lot easier to type and Shorter in length

Plus allows us to use MVC pattern, there a lot of benefits to why template engine (smarty), as u have said php itself is a template engine

[litewarez]

yea but with smarty

your getting php to tun {$$var} into <?php echo $var;?> and then php turns that into "some value"

Example:

index.php --> index.tpl -> Smarty engine -> PHP's Engine -> Output

There THE SAME, They convert what you write into what is sent to the browaser, you just cangee the tags and make php work a hell of a lot hard

Why do you enable asp style tags and shortags.

<%=$var%> or <?=$var?> instead of <?php echo $var ?> if you cant be arsed to write :/

Also Immortal, Smarty has nothing to do with the MVC Pattern, Fuck Template systems in general have nothing to do with the MVC Pattern :/

[warezrock]

Also here are the files that i just put together, there all working and i think all of you should start using such thing in your scripts.

http://rapidshare.com/files/40432365...ngine.zip.html

link deleted pls reupload