Re: [SMARTY-DEV] ideas for the smarty class file

Thanks for the feedback, and your very welcome from all of us here :-) Now some comments... On Thu, 2003-02-20 at 12:11, Dennis Gearon wrote: > FIRST OF ALL, I want to preface the ideas/comments below with: > > 'great job all of you!' > > I have begun using it and it is a fantastic piece of software. It sets the trend for years to > come for this kind of purpose. I believe that is will become a major building block for > additional PHP projects, more so than it is now. THANK YOU, ALL OF YOU for building this. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Now to some input/suggestions on the smarty.class.php file ..... > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > 1/ add comments to the line: > > define('DIR_SEP', DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR); > > to explain whether this is the: > > '/'vs '\' situation, or the > ':' vs ';' situation > what the purpose of this definition is, > where DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR is to come from, > or what to use it for? It is the '/' vs '\' issue. > > 2/ In order to make starting up for us beginning users much easier, I propose these additional > changes: > > A/ Put the following definitions below the define line above in the smarty class > definition. (as far as these names go, see comments at bottom ) > > define('SMARTY_DEFAULT_TEMPLATE_DIR', "templates"); > define('SMARTY_DEFAULT_COMPILE_DIR', "templates_c"); > define('SMARTY_DEFAULT_CONFIG_DIR', "configs"); > define('SMARTY_DEFAULT_CACHE_DIR', "cache"); > define('SMARTY_DEFAULT_PLUGINS_DIR', "plugins"); > define('SMARTY_DEFAULT_DEBUG_TPL', "debug_tpl"); Smarty should be setup so the library files are in a library directory (SMARTY_DIR), and application files are located local to the given application. templates, templates_c, configs and cache are application-specific directories, and should not generally be located within the SMARTY_DIR. plugins is a library directory, and will be looked for in SMARTY_DIR. By default, Smarty looks for templates, templates_c, configs and cache in the current working directory of the executing script, NOT the SMARTY_DIR directory. So, we can't look for these directories under SMARTY_DIR by default, it will break existing installations that expect to find them in the cwd. I know that the distribution has these all in one place, we'll make some adjustments to it to make things more clear by moving library files under a subdirectory. > > B/ Put the following lines at the top of the smarty constructor: > ( manually wrapped to appear better in a mail client ) > > if( !isset($this->template_dir )) $this->template_dir = > SMARTY_DIR . SMARTY_DEFAULT_TEMPLATE_DIR; > > if( !isset($this->compile_dir )) $this->compile_dir = > SMARTY_DIR . SMARTY_DEFAULT_COMPILE_DIR; > > if( !isset($this->config_dir )) $this->config_dir = > SMARTY_DIR . SMARTY_DEFAULT_CONFIG_DIR; > > if( !isset($this->cache_dir )) $this->cache_dir = > SMARTY_DIR . SMARTY_DEFAULT_CACHE_DIR; > > if( !isset($this->plugins_dir )) $this->plugins_dir = > array(SMARTY_DIR . SMARTY_DEFAULT_PLUGINS_DIR); > > if( !isset($this->debug_tpl )) $this->debug_tpl = > SMARTY_DIR . SMARTY_DEFAULT_DEBUG_TPL; > > C/ Change the values of the class variables in the class defintion > to unset/nothing as per: > > var $template_dir; > var $compile_dir; > var $config_dir; > var $cache_dir; > var $plugins_dir; > var $debug_tpl; > > 3/ Items 2A - 2C above, will cover the following circumstances; > > A/ If the class is used raw, and not extended, > then the values will come out the same as they do now, > with one exception, the value $debug_tpl. I COULD USE SOME > IDEAS ON THIS ONE. Why is there a debug.tpl in the smarty > distribution, but it's not referenced? > Normally all template files reside in the templates directory, but the debug.tpl file is a template that is a special case. It needs to be common to all applictions, so it also resides in the SMARTY_DIR by default. If you set $debug_tpl to just 'debug.tpl', then it needs to be in each template_dir for each application. > B/ if the class is extended and the constructor for the extended > class assigns values to the above six variables, they > will be left alone when the child constructor then calls > the parent constructor in the smarty class. > > C/ any code that now assigns the variables through > $smarty_object_name->var_name = var_value will still overwrite > the values in the class variables. > > D/ us newbies or even those wishing to have very flexible code, set the > constant, 'SMARTY_DIR', as per the directions and tutorials, and > all the correct files and directories can be reached. MUCH fewer, > 'help me, I get such and such error upon new installation' > emails as a result, and a MUCH better first impression of Smarty > also. As it is 'SMARTY_DIR' has very little usage, except for > having to write it in manually all over the place. I'm all for making things easier, but we don't want to break anything either. Smarty does need a nice installation script, and I've even seen some things submitted in the past but I haven't had a lot of time to go over them. Install scripts are not trivial across platforms :-) > > 4/ Why is debug_tpl set up to be both path and file name, instead of looking for > it in $templates_dir ? I think if that flexibility is needed, a separate > variable for $debug_templates should be made. Shouldn't all templates be > in $template_dir otherwise? > > 5/ picyaune notes here. > > $template_dir is 'templates' --- SINGULAR var name, PLURAL path name > path IS named after contents > > $compile_dir is 'templates_c --- SINGULAR var name, PLURAL path name > path IS NOT named after contents > > $config_dir is 'configs' --- SINGULAR var name, PLURAL path name > path IS named after contents > > $cache_dir is 'cache' --- SINGULAR var name, SINGULAR path name > path IS named after contents > > $plugins_dir is 'plugins' --- PLURAL var name, PLURAL path name > path IS named after contents > > $debug_tpl is '' --- starts out blank, but a > default template exists > is for both a DIRECTORY and FILE name, > not a directory OR a file name. > > 6/ If changes to class vars were to be made for consistency, I would suggest the following: > > > $templates_dir is 'templates' --- PLURAL var name, PLURAL path name > path IS named after contents > > $templates_compiled_dir is 'templates_c' > --- PLURAL var name, PLURAL path name > path IS named after contents > > $configs_dir is 'configs' --- PLURAL var name, PLURAL path name > path IS named after contents > > (THERE ARE MULTIPLE CACHE DIRECTORIES OR 'CACHES',MAKE THESE PLURAL? > $caches_dir is 'caches' --- PLURAL var name, SINGULAR path name > path IS named after contents > > $plugins_dir is 'plugins' --- PLURAL var name, PLURAL path name > path IS named after contents > > $debug_tpl_file is 'debug.tpl' --- FILE NAME It would be nice to make things consistant and perfect, but changing property names would break stuff big time. Its the same thing with browsers and HTTP_REFERER. It's misspelled, so fix it right? :-) We could move to methods for setting property values, such as set_template_dir(). That is a more proper use of object classes anyways. Those kind of changes should be for a major release, such as 3.0 (slated for new caching functionality) Monte > > (MAYBE THIS WILL REQUIRE A SEPARATE CACHE? I DON'T THINKS SO, I'D JUST CHANGE > THE ASSUMED LOCATION OF THE DEBUG TEMPLATE TO EITHER: > A/ $templates_dir > B/ or $templates_dir . 'debug' > > $templates_debug_dir is 'templates' > -OR- > $templates_debug_dir is 'templates/debug' > > -- Monte Ohrt <monte@ispi.net>