Re: [PHP Template] Request for comments - nested sections/looping/padding

Andrei Zmievski wrote: > > I've been thinking a lot about nested sections/looping/repeating values. > Here's what I came up with. > > * I'm not sure 'repeat' is a good name. I think 'pad' would be better. > > * 'pad' would have one of three values: > * 'none' - means stop looping when the variable with the minimum number > of values is done > * 'default' - pad with the default value, or empty string if default is > not specified > * 'last' - pad with the last value of the variable (or the only value > if it's not an array) > > By default, I think, 'pad' should be 'default' for arrays, and > 'last' > for variables with single value. Some examples: > > 1. Let's say we have $color = array("red", "green", > "blue"), and $size = > array("large", "small"). If we have this template piece: > > {{section}} > {{ $color }} - {{ $size }} > {{/section}} > > Then by default it will output: > > red - large > green - small > blue - > > If we use {{ $size default="none" }}, then we'd have: > > red - large > green - small > blue - none > > If we use {{ $size pad=none }}, we'd have: > > red - large > green - small > > 2. Let's say we have $domain = "php.net", $name = array("joe", > "andrei"). > > {{section}} > {{ $name }}@{{ $domain }} > {{/section}} > > Then by default it will output: > > joe@php.net > andrei@php.net > > If we use {{ $size pad=last }}, we'd have: > > joe@php.net > andrei@ > > * Imagine this scenario: > > {{section category}} > Category: {{ $catname }} > {{section article}} > {{ $headline }} - {{ $date }} > {{/section article}} > {{/section category}} > > What we want to do here is display a list of categories, and for each > category, display the list of headlines and dates in it. So, we'll have > to assign the data like this: > > tmpl_assign($id, "catname", array("Sports", "News")); > tmpl_assign($id, "headline", array("Sports Headline 1"), > array("News Headline 1", "News Headline > 2")); > tmpl_assign($id, "date", array("02/20/00", array("02/21/00", > "02/23/00")); > > Or if you are receiving data incrementally, you'd use tmpl_add_value(), > assuming $sql->record["headline"] contains all the headlines for a > category, and so on: > > while ($sql->next()) { > tmpl_add_value($id, "catname", $sql->record["Category"]); > tmpl_add_value($id, "headline", $sql->record["headline"]); > tmpl_add_value($id, "date", $sql->record["date"]); > } > > Is this clear? > > Basically, after the section loops through one set of values, it > increments internal pointer so that the next time 'article' section is > entered into, it will loop through the next set of values. > > * You can refer to the current value of variable as it exists in another > section using $<section name>/<var name>, e.g. $category/catname > > * The variables in outer sections are visible to inner ones, e.g. > $category/catname, but outer sections cannot look inside inner ones, e.g. > $article/headline will give you nothing when used outside the 'article' > section. But it might be useful to do #article/TOTAL to get the total > number of headlines/dates that were printed. We'll have to think more > about what happens when you refer to $article/headline from outside. > > * Imagine that we want to print the categories and articles like this: > > News News Headline 1 02/21/00 > News Headline 2 02/23/00 > Sports Sports Headline 1 02/20/00 > > Now, how would you do this? Each row would have to be printed in the > 'article' section, but we need to loop through $catname too, getting each > next value only when the 'article' section looping is done. I think we can > do it like this: > > {{section category}} > {{section article}} > Category: {{ $category/catname pad=default }} {{ $headline }} {{ $date }} > {{/section article}} > {{/section category}} > > So, even though $catname is not seen in 'category' section, it is assigned > to it by virtue of having been mentioned as $category/catname. Thus on the > first iteration of the 'article' loop, we'll print: > > News News Headline 1 02/21/00 > > Then, since pad=default and $category/catname has only a single value, > we're going to output default (which is empty here) and we'd have: > > News Headline 2 02/23/00 > > Now, 'article' looping is done and it will increment internal pointer to > go to the next set of values. 'category' looping is also done, so it's > going to go to 'Sports' now, and the next printed thing will be: > > Sports Sports Headline 1 02/20/00 > > And we have our desired result. > > I think the basic ideas are good and pretty flexible, we might want to come > up with really good names for attributes and values so that the designer is > not too confused. I'm not sure about 'pad', 'default', > 'last', etc. > > -Andrei > Something to consider, it might be confusing to have attributes and values the same name, for example: {{ section default="none" pad="default" }}