Re: [PHP Template] dynamic blocks

I like Monte's option #2, with the curly braces (the $$ thing could lead to mistakes that might be confusing to the designer if s/he forgot to use two dollar signs). Sanford At 11:17 AM 2/16/2000 -0600, Monte Ohrt wrote: >Ludovico Magnocavallo wrote: >> >> > No, they will be removed by the engine and will not appear on the page >> > at all. >> >> Andrei, my point is that designers will work on BARE templates, and open >> them up in netscape or ie to test layout, etc. indipendently from any >> engine or script. At least, that's what our designers do, they edit the >> templates indipendently from me, or other developers, and they edit them >> as STATIC HTML files. >> >> So the engine will NOT be there to process templates for them, and they >> WILL see the dynblocks declarations on the page, unless the developer >> masks them inside HTML comments. >> >> L. >> > >Good point. We've never run into this problem, our designers always >edit the templates in a text editing program and view the pages in >their browser as seen generated by php. > >So what would be a good syntax to cover this issue? I'll just >throw a couple ideas out, you can shoot them down as you see fit :-) > >OPTION #1: hide the tags in HTML comments > ><!-- {dynamic: row } --> > ><!-- {/dynamic} --> > >Pros: will hide the contents from browsers when displayed directly > >Cons: A little messy looking, and a bit more info for the > template engine to parse out, a little more syntax > for a designer to learn. > > >OPTION #2: use normal HTML markup for template tags > ><dynamic: row> > <tr> > <td>{title}</td> > </tr> ></dynamic> > ><if title != "foo"> > {title} ></if> > >Pros: it keeps the template clean and easy to read, and the tags >will be hidden when brought up by the browser. This is also nice >for the designer, they are mostly likely familiar with how HTML >markup works, so no new tag syntax to learn. > >Cons: It has a possiblity of conflicting with browser tags, like >if someone makes a CSS element called "dynamic" > > >Yet another idea that goes along with OPTION #2, get rid of >curly braces altogether, and use a '$' to denote variables: > ><if $title != "foo"> > <b>$title</b> is $$5.00 ></if> > > >Notice double $$ to escape a literal '$' >Any other ideas? > >Monte > > ------- Sanford Redlich redlich@mindspring.com