Re: Quick Question about Template Parsers

Sure, you could do it any way you want. One way or another you need to get it into a variable, so how you get the template there doesn't really have any affect on your replace function. I'm using the file based template so it's easy for users to modify. I "read" the template file into the output buffer, then store the buffer into a variable and clear the buffer: ob_start(); include("templateFile.tpl"); $tpl_content = ob_get_contents(); ob_end_clean(); The template is now stored in the $tpl_content variable. You could just as easily pull the template from a database. For the template file I place "data tags" in it that I do a search and replace on. Some common "tags" I use: {::PageTitle::}, {::MainData::},{::NavBar::} You should try to use str_replace instead of ereg_replace since it's faster. Both support arrays for the search and replace part, so you can use one line of code to do 30, 40 or whatever replaces. I create an array of my data tags and another array of the matching data, then do: str_replace($tagArray,$dataArray,$formTemplate); I can then provide a user who knows HTML a list of data tags (the contract) that they can place in a template anyway they want. The whole idea is to separate your data from your code from you presentation. Hope that helps. On Wednesday, January 22, 2003, at 01:06 PM, Jim Lucas wrote:

In general, how do most template parsers work? do they read the file into a variable and do something to the effect of preg_replace() to element that is found? and if so, could you replace the step of reading the file into a variable with getting the template data out of a database? WARNING... more questions to come... Jim --

Brent Baisley Systems Architect Landover Associates, Inc. Search & Advisory Services for Advanced Technology Environments p: 212.759.6400/800.759.0577