Hi to all developers...
I'm new to Laravel. I want to build a complex web application and it's important to support at least 2 language. Unfortunately, One of these language is LTR and other is RTL!My questions are:
Some parts of website have static content, like headers, navigation items, sidebar content or... . As I understand, I must create files in lang directory and based on selected language, load proper data. Is it right? In this way, Is it possible to load these static data from lang directory files cause slower app and bad performance? (compare with static views, blade files that have content and don't need to load small piece of data from lang directory).
Considering first question, is it better to have one set of views for one language and another set of views for second language? (each set of views have their static data and don't require use lang files to full parts of header, sidebar and...)
As I said, I must have a LTR and a RTL layout in order to have best UI. So I must have separate stylesheets and loads based on choosen language, is it right?
I have some questions for multi language database design, but I start a new discussion later. Thanks for your attention and I hope that you guide me and say your opinions...
Some parts of website have static content, like headers, navigation items, sidebar content or... . As I understand, I must create files in lang directory and based on selected language, load proper data. Is it right? In this way, Is it possible to load these static data from lang directory files cause slower app and bad performance? (compare with static views, blade files that have content and don't need to load small piece of data from lang directory)
Yes, by all means make sure you abstract your language from your views. This is a good practice that you will definitely want to do to save yourself multiple identical views per language (nightmare!).
When you program anything there is a performance overhead. When you use functionality such as this, you're making your life a lot easier. The performance hit is tiny. Don't use this as a reason to not do this.
Considering first question, is it better to have one set of views for one language and another set of views for second language? (each set of views have their static data and don't require use lang files to full parts of header, sidebar and...)
No, this is a nightmare scenario for most developers. Maintaining multiple brittle views due to language eats up time when separation of these concerns at the beginning removes any need for this to happen.
As I said, I must have a LTR and a RTL layout in order to have best UI. So I must have separate stylesheets and loads based on choosen language, is it right?
LTR and RTL is a problem wholly solvable using some simple CSS alone, no need to have separate style sheets. Instead, using a single class on the body you can apply the correct styling. <body class="{{ $rtl ? 'rtl' : 'ltr'}}">. Now you can use CSS' direction property to define the direction text reads.
As you are using Laravel, leverage the framework as much as you can. There is no need for you to re-invent the wheel with this.
Related
I'm new with drupal 7 and now I'm having a hard time with theme's coding, if more specific, I don't know how I should show pre-defined content. Previous developer of project said, that I absolutly shouldn't use/hardcode any content and links directly in template files and I should put it to modules/blocks (with regions). It would be ok, but design I'm coding now is too complex and has much content and just writing module for each thing - it take too much time.
I have very similar design to this one:
http://classter-html.themerex.net/
So, what is the best and right way to show content (and links) in templates? Of course, I could just hardcode it, but I'm kind of person, who follows good practices.
Let's look at the example site you gave. In Drupal it would be set up something like this:
The carousell at the top: Slick
Classter Team: A View of content type "employee" displayed in a block.
The photos: A View of the files, or of a photo content type. Or one of multiple purpose built photo album modules.
Application Features: A block with custom HTML-code.
Things that only show up at one page (like the start page) can be done using full HTML in that nodes content. Views and blocks with HTML usually solves the rest.
If you are sure that some content will never change (is not translatable or something) I don't see why you shouldn't hard-code it.
Regarding hard-coded links, use root relative paths, so if you move your site to some other domain they will still work.
I want to understand how to use templating system and permalinks on php websites :D !..
let me describe my self more,
1.currently i have 20 files each have its own php logic (index.php,wizard.php,search.php etc)
ALL use same class's and includes.(install.php include all the required for all class's in my project abd u require_once(install.php) in all files)
i wana remodel my website into.
Analyze URL requested ---> IDENTIFY requested page ---> GET TEMPLATE for THIS PAGE -->MODIFY header(meta) and footer(javascript) ---> add logic ---> display page :D.
can some one put me on right learning track :D !. cuz i hv coded my website fully in oop and made all its content loads dynamically from MYSQL (simple small CMS) but i have no clue how to join template and php into index without repeating my self and create different file for each page in my web ! (each file do different jobs of course like file users.php does login and registration and userprofile etc)
Hope my english wassnt too too bad and u could understand my question :D !
My current approach so far:
Mysql table : page_tbl
columns: pagename,LogicFile,templateFile,MetaTag.
index.php?pagename
will check if not already cached or not listed for chacing it will :
Mysql:SELECT * WHERE pagename='$_GET['page']'
loginfiles = cars.php,search.php (will be exploded with , and included)
Template files = will be also exploded and modified according to MetaTag.
Metatag: Serialized assoc array with ['name']=['value'];
Then i start buffer output , replace template with new descriptions and keywords(auto generated)
include logic files
include footer.php (which include the scripts)
am i near to correct rout or still far away ? or am did i lose my track and over killing
If you are unsure whether you want to write your own, or use an existing one.
It is going to be a quite possibly very rewarding experience but a very time consuming one to write your own.
If you have a task at hand that you need to be solved, use an existing one.
That being said there are plenty of templating systems, smarty being the most long-lived one. You can find a short discussion on 5 popular ones at phpbuilder.
You also have entire Frameworks that you might want to consider. They are more than just a templating system, where database stuff, ajax helpers etc are included. Zend, CakePHP, and Codeigniter being popular ones. You can find comparisons of these at phpframeworks.
The best way is to take this route:
parse request data
determine controller which will be used
in controller select layout and template [layout "includes" template, it hold the contents that are common to all pages and template has the request-specific content]
in controller also fetch the data from database [MVP way]
assign data to array and pass it to the layout, it'll pass the data futher to the template
in layout and template use data from that array and construct view
pass everything to the browser
This is the way the frameworks work, and it isn't that bad. ;]
Situation is simple. I'm starting to develop a website that should be localized based on visitor's origin IP address.
It's a PHP-MySQL stack. How do I go about the multilingual text content? I am thinking of having a language table in the database with the primary key as content identifier, another column for page identifier and separate columns for content in each language. Appropriate page content will be fetched as an array in the requested language and then displayed on the page.
Is this an efficient solution? I somewhat feel ridiculous to make database calls just for static content. I thought of having PHP definition files for each language and load the definitions during page load. But updating the definitions for each language are going to be like editing the files manually.
Has someone come out with an efficient solution for this kind of situation? Any input is much appreciated.
If the content is static like you say, why not use Gettext?
It's the standard regarding localization of content and has been discussed lots of times in StackOverflow.
I'm starting to understand the importance of templating in PHP. I'm using PHP itself as a template engine to avoid learning any new language. I'm still not clear on one thing tho, although I have an idea about it. I would like to know what the experts do.
Should I create a full page template, with all tables, forms and everything else (including header and footer), or should I put all of my tables, forms, etc in their own file and then add them to the template as needed.
Here's a small example to clear things up...
Should I
a) create one page with all the tables, forms, and other elements in it and use that as a final product
// Set all the information
$template->title = $username;
$template->user_info = get_user($user_id);
$template->articles = get_articles($user_id);
$template->ads = random_ad($user_info);
// Load the template with everything already in it
$template->load('user_page.tpl')
$template->display();
OR
b) create every table, form, related block element in its own file and then use those to create a final product
// set the title and load the header template
$header['title'] = $username;
$template->load('header.tpl', $header);
// get the user info as an array and load into user profile template
$user_info = get_user($user_id);
$template->load('user_profile.tpl');
// load the new article form
$template->load('new_article_form.tpl');
// get the articles as an array of info and load into user articles template
$articles = get_articles($user_id);
$template->load('user_articles.tpl', $articles);
// get a random ad based on user info
$ads = random_ad($user_info);
$template->load('advertisements.tpl');
// load the footer template and display final page
$template->load('footer.php');
$template->display();
Where every file loaded contains a small portion of what needs to be displayed on the final page.
Because of the Dont Repeat Yourself technique, I would think B, but i would like to know which and why
I would personally say the first approach is best, because it keeps all documents and document fragments semantically complete.
The second approach means that you'll have a <div> in your header.tpl that is closed by a </div> in your footer.tpl (except likely there will be a few tags that applies to). This means if you change your layout, by adding a wrapper div (for example) somewhere, you have to remember to also close it in another file (or, depending on your layout, two or three different files).
It's worse with several different embedded files. Think of how hard it is to debug a site, when one file - that gets included conditionally - has an extra </div>. You get a vague bug report "sometimes the page looks completely messed up, doesn't matter what browser I use" that is very very hard to track down. It's MUCH worse if you're using table-based layouts..
Using the first approach, you can still use the DRY principle. You load the template into a variable. eg:
$userVars['name'] = $currentUser->name;
$templateVars['userinfo'] = $template->load('userinfo.php', $userVars);
...
$template->display('template.tpl', $templateVars);
You can continually nest documents that way. There are many benefits:
Each file is semantically complete HTML - all tags that are opened, are also closed in the same document. It's easy to edit one part of the layout without breaking (possibly unknowningly) anything else.
It's each to cache the output of certain templates, and re-use them
It's easy to apply AJAX to the site. For example, you have a stats.tpl template rendering inside a <div id="stats"> on the first page load. You also have a view that just renders the stats.tpl template by itself, and then use jquery to do $('#stats').load('/ajaxstats.php'), which refreshes that div but without repeating code at all.
Template inheritance for structures common to every template (e.g. layout; header/footer), and template embedding (i.e. including) for reusable bits (e.g. forms).
With approach A and without inheritance, you'd be either including common layout elements (which is IMHO ugly), or duplicating entire layout in every template (which is even worse). And plain approach B would create massive amounts of tiny template bits for everything, which may reduce maintainability.
And for that, I really recommend using real, dedicated templating engine instead of plain PHP. They make life easier (inheritance is one thing; another - variable auto-escaping).
template inheritance would probably make the cleanest code. you can do this now in straight php using PHP Template Inheritance
There is no good or bad solution. There are techniques and guidelines but in time you will learn what approach is better than others.
Just by looking at it i would say that the second approach allows you to be more flexible and breaks down the page into smaller parts. Smaller might some times mean more manageable.
Also the second solution also allows more than 1 persons working on the page since they will only need to work/change parts of the page and not the whole page.
regards,
As gregmac suggested, the first solution is probably preferable. Having said that, I would also suggest to have a look at the various PHP frameworks available, most of which implement templates using various techniques.
Have a look at this list for a start. You may also want to take a look at some stand-alone template engines, such as Smarty, in order to get some ideas or to avoid implementing your own engine.
I have a web application developed using PHP. I want my users to select themes for their pages throughout the application.
Where should I start before using PHP themes?
What should I know about Themes in a PHP application?
Edit:
My question about themes is only about changing the color of the layout, not the images.
Suppose My ADMIN user will have white and Orange, but my staff user will have white and green...
How it can be done in PHP with CodeIgniter?
There are lots of directions you can go with this.
1) "CSS ZEN"
This is where the markup remains unchanged, but you totally change the design just by using CSS and images. Demonstrated very well on http://www.csszengarden.com/
2) MVC Stylee
This is where you create a model that represents the page data and then pass it to a view, which contains some inline echo statements. The idea is that you could send the same model to a totally different view so it could look entirely different, HTML and all. Cake PHP is a good start for this: http://cakephp.org/
Example:
<div class="content">
<? echo $Page->Content ?>
</div>
3) Micro-Markup
With this method, you add your own "special tags" to an HTML page. You then read in your plain HTML page and replace the special tags with the information you want to display. This is good if you want your templates to be recognisable to HTML guys that don't know PHP and might break the PHP code in the MVC app.
Example:
<div class="content">
<#Content#>
</div>
Out of all of these, MVC is a very structured way of achieving what you want - however, I listed the other options as they cater for specific scenarios that might be relevant to you.
I have implemented the concept in all three of these, in situations that were appropriate for each.
Regarding The Edit In The Question
I imagine you'll have "something" that represents your user - so it is as easy as:
(In the event of just wanting to override a few settings...)
<link href="style.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
<?php if ($User->Type === USER_ADMIN) { ?>
<link href="admin.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
<?php } ?>
You can adjust this example in the following ways:
Use a switch statement if there will be many user types
If the replacement is total, rather than just a few overrides, you may want to completely swap the stylesheet.
You would usually set up template files that contain the HTML and CSS, and build in the PHP generated values at runtime.
The best approach to this is to have the theme reside in a separate directory, containing no code, just template variables like {mainmenu}, {backbutton}, {content} ... you get my drift. Those are then filled by your PHP script, possibly with the help of a template engine like Smarty (No need to re-invent the wheel here).
There is also the approach of having PHP markup directly in the template file(s) like echo $xyz; while this is a perfectly valid practice I use myself often, I recommend using a template engine over using PHP markup in the code if you want a solid, future-proof templating system because:
First, there is less that a designer can break when working on the HTML.
Second, having PHP markup in the code is a temptation to program PHP logic inside the template (loops, conditions) instead of properly preparing them in the PHP code at the point where the template variables are created. That is terrible for maintenance and the further use of your templates, because you have to replicate that PHP soup into every new template again. After all, you want to have a template engine so others can create new looks for your product, without having to know how to program it.
Third, with the templating engine based approach you have the possibility to add caching where necessary without any additional work. Not possible with the scripting approach. Yes, in a web application you won't be able to cache that much, but with a lot of data, there will be instances where it will help the user experience.
Fourth and least important, it makes your template less easy to export to other applications, and import templates from other applications.
The CSS Zen approach mentioned by Sohnee is great for websites, but is going to be too limited for a web application that uses complex input elements, JS based menus, and the like. It is too often that those elements need to be changed and customized in the markup.
If you have a look at my CodeIgniter Template library it briefly explains how you can set up themes and layouts (the equivalent of header & footer).
If you set up global code such as a Hook or a MY_Controller then you can dynamically set your theme based on the logged in user, the user type, etc.
Eg:
if($user->role == 'admin')
{
$this->template->set_theme('admin_skin');
}
else
{
$this->template->set_theme($user->theme);
}
That is just a VERY basic example of the sort of thing you could use this Template library for.
CMS Solutions
Magento and Wordpress package all theme related files into their own seperate directories. These contain the serverside code, stylesheets, images and javaScript for the theme. The user in effect chooses a directory to use which affects how the page is layed out and styled.
An easier approach
A much easier way to get started would be to accept that the actual content, e.g. HTML of a page would stay the same, but let the user choose from various CSS style sheets.
When choosing a style sheet the system could use JavaScript to load it in dynamically so that the user can preview the look they are choosing.
If you have really good semantic HTML it will be enough to change the CSS files. Unless the design changes are really heavy. Then it would make sense to provide PHP templates that are build with some sort of modules: variables which contain certain HTML structure like navigation or sidebar, etc.
For themes you do not need PHP. Just define your themes in CSS (the best way is one file for each theme) and use a simple JavaScript chooser like at this site: http://www.fotokluburan.cz/switchcss.js.