Re: templating

Ryan A wrote:

Hi, A pal of mine needed some help on his project, he is using a "header" and "footer" file to "template" his project... but its gotten a bit complicated as he has a few dynamic parts in the header and footer files, so I told him to go with a proper templating method of templating the whole page rather than includ()ing the top and bottom. This somewhat a "religious" issue for some, but my personal opinion is that PHP is often very good at being a simple template system. Just assign your variables beforehand, and display them with the <?= $var ?> tag. (I do this with entire pages, split up into chunks for various parts of content.)

I.e. template_head.php: <?php <html> <head>

     <title><?= $page_title ?>
     <?php foreach ($css_files as $fn) { ?>
       <style type="text/css">@import "<?= $fn ?>";</style>
     <?php } /* end foreach ($js_files) */ ?>

</head> <body> ?> etc... Then your page would look like: <?php /* Assign some variables */ ... include('template_head.php'); /* A little workhorse code, assign some more variables */ ... include('template_content1.php'); /* Assign even more variables */ ... include('template_foot.php');

After having a better look at his scripts, I am just not sure if something big (like SMARTY for instance) would be good for him. He just needs maybe 5 template pages, same pages, different color. Smarty is also excellent. (I still prefer pure PHP though. :-)

Searching google I see literally hundreds of "templating solutions" can anyone recommend a simple one or should I tell him to just use str_replace() for tags like: {{menu_here}} {{header_here} etc? Something like SMARTY would be like using a nuke to kill a fly (IMHO) esp since this project will not expand to anything much bigger or complicated. Why kill performance when you don't have to?

jon