I'm going through some of the code and projects provided here http://fatfreeframework.com/development. My goal is to create a lightweight MVC kickstarter projecting using F3. I know it's been done before, but I'm using this as a learning exercise and I hope to have something useful come out of it in the end.
The biggest stumbling block I'm coming across right now is the concept of layouts. I know the documentation mentions using templates within templates, but I'm struggling to implement it in practice. In the end, I want to have 1 or 2 layouts (default layout, maybe a custom one for modal popups, etc), and then have my views rendered wrapped inside of those layouts. I want a default layout and then the ability to override the default for the few pages that need custom ones. Here's the code I've been using:
// this is the handler for one of my routes, it's on a controller class called Index
public function index($f3, $params)
{
// this (or anything else) should get passed into the view
$f3->set('listOfItems',array("item1", "item2"));
// set the view
$f3->set('content', 'index.htm')
// render the layout
\Template::instance()->render('layout.htm');
}
Unfortunately, I keep getting a blank page. Am I going about this completely the wrong direction, or am I on the right track? Is there a way to set a default layout somewhere so it's used until it's overridden?
Well you could create a base class with a default layout. Then you extend it for each controller class. For example:
abstract class Layout {
protected $tpl='layout.htm';
function afterRoute($f3,$params) {
echo \Template::instance()->render($this->tpl);
}
}
Then:
class OneController extends Layout {
function index($f3,$params) {
$f3->set('listOfItems',...);
$f3->set('content','one/index.htm');
}
}
class AnotherController extends Layout {
protected $tpl='popup.htm';//override default layout here
function index($f3,$params) {
$f3->set('listOfItems',...);
$f3->set('content','another/index.htm');
}
}
In layout.htm:
<body>
<div id="content">
<include href="{{#content}}" if="isset(#content)"/>
</div>
</body>
Structure of the UI folder:
/ui
|-- layout.htm
|-- popup.htm
|-- one
|-- index.htm
|-- another
|-- index.htm
This is just one example of how you could organize your code. F3 is loose enough to let you organize it in a multitude of ways.
I had exactly the same problem - set everything up as required, rendered the layout, and kept getting a blank page. Also when I checked the HTML source of the rendered page it was completely empty.
If you look closely however rendering the layout is not enough, you have to also print it using the echo command. So rather than the following example which appears at first glance to be correct:
$f3->route('GET /',
function($f3) {
// Instantiates a View object
$view = new View;
// Render the page
$view->render('template/layout.php');
you actually need the last line to start with echo:
echo $view->render('template/layout.php');
For more examples see:
http://fatfreeframework.com/views-and-templates
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-the-fat-free-php-framework
http://takacsmark.com/fat-free-php-framework-tutorial-4-database-models-crud/
Also for some reason (which I'm sure will become clear soon - I've only just started using the Fat Free Framework) you seem to also be able to render an .htm file which contain embedded PHP (i.e. they don't have to have the .php extension).
Related
Is it possible to render another "root" template instead of the Page.ss file for some specific pages / controllers? There are already some pages using the Page.ss template, but now there will be a new "Intranet" section on the website where the pages should have another "root" template: IntranetPage.ss.
Page.ss should stay as is and should not be touched at all.
I mainly want different "root" templates because both templates load different JS and CSS files. Also the "container" HTML is quite different.
I was able to create a custom controller which does manually what I need. Something like this:
class IntranetPageController extends PageController
{
public function index()
{
return $this->customise([
'Layout' => $this->renderWith(['Intranet/Layout/IntranetPageLayout'])
])->renderWith(['Intranet/IntranetPage']);
}
}
The code is inspired from here: https://docs.silverstripe.org/en/4/developer_guides/templates/rendering_templates/
IntranetPage.ss is used now as the "root" template. IntranetPageLayout.ss is displayed for the $Layout placeholder.
That seems to work, however I have many pages which have to be based on IntranetPage.ss. It feels strange to write for every new Controller the very same index function (with a small adjustment to load another LayoutPage).
I am sure, Silverstripe has some convention to do that automatically :)
What I need is very close to having a individual theme per page, but I am not sure if that is possible...
Instead of extending PageController, extend your IntranetPageController in new controllers. Whenever index is called, it will call your index function from your parent class, in your case IntranetPageController.
I have a view helper that needs jquery, jqueryui, knockout and few other js files to work. Some pages already references all the js files needed by view helper, some pages don't.
Right now, I am using the url to figure out if a js file should be referenced or not inside the view helper.
Is there a better way to do this?
Thanks.
I'm not 100% sure I understand your question in the right way, but I'm 100% sure you need to manage your javascript dependencies in a better way.
I usually use require.js module loader to manage javascript files included into a template.
In order to use it, you need to download require.js file and place it somewhere in your project. I believe you would like to place it in ./public/js/vendors directory not to keep it alongside with your own code. Also, you need to create config file for it, where you decide what javascript modules are needed.
So, the concept is pretty clear: if you have javascript files, that are related to some part of your project, for example admin panel, you should create a config that will load those files. I usually have one config for admin panel part of my web application, and another one for user side of it.
This config with require.js itself are included into template like this:
<script data-main="./js/config-admin.js" src="./js/vendor/require.js"></script>
You need to keep in mind, that on every template you should have only one inclusion of javascript - the inclusion of require.js and it's config.
The config usually looks like this:
require.config({
baseUrl: '/public/js',
paths: {
'bootstrap': './vendor/bootstrap',
'jquery': './vendor/jquery'
},
shim: {
'bootstrap': ['jquery']
}
});
require(['./app'], function (app) {
console.log(app); //Here is smth that required module 'public/js/app.js' returns
//Do some coding here if you wish, for example to start js application.
});
If you need more examples of usage, you can visit my github profile, there are a couple of repositories where I use it (symfony and zend2 applications).
If you are not managing your assets via other means, the HeadScript view helper is designed to act as a collection of the scripts that should be rendered in the view.
Considering the helper depends on the JS files, placing these in the helper's factory class would be a logical place.
class MyViewHelperFactory
{
public function __invoke(ViewPluginManager $viewHelperManager, $name, $requestedName)
{
$headScriptHelper = $viewHelperManager->get('HeadScript');
$headScriptHelper->appendFile('/js/file.js');
return new MyViewHelper();
}
}
There are of course better ways of doing these things; personally I like Assetic.
Im here again with a question about yii framework.
I've got a page under views/myviewname/admin.php.
I've got a page under views/myotherviewname/admin.php.
Now i want to give those pages another style. But how do i do that?
I've created a page under themes/classis/views/myviewname/admin.php and in that file i got this:
<?php /* #var $this Controller */ ?>
<?php echo $content; ?>
But i get an error. Because $content is not defined.
How do i style those pages? Would be nice if i can style all admin pages at once.
First of all, this is undeniable that $content variable will be known as undefined, since it can only be used in Layouts, not Views.
As you probably know, if you already have set a theme for your application(in main config file by 'theme'=>'myTheme'), Yii looks for that into themes/myTheme and all views will be rendered in themes/myTheme/views/x/y.php instead of views/x/y.php. Also, your layouts will be overridden by layouts located into themes/myTheme/layouts.
Now, lets assume that we want to create 2 themes:
DarkTheme
LightTheme
We should create structures like below:
+themes
+darkTheme
+views
+layouts
+main.php
+myLayout1.php
+myLayout2.php
+myController
+myView1.php
+lightTheme
+views
+layouts
+main.php
+myLayout1.php
+myLayout2.php
+myController
+myView1.php
We have a main.php which holds our base theme structure(skeleton), and 2 layouts named myLayout1.php and myLayout2.php respectively. Also we already defined a default layout into our base controller(Usually Controller.php) like below:
public $layout='//layouts/myLayout1';
Now, we have a main layout which shows everything inside myLayout1 by default. We can change layout in out action like below:
$this->layout="myLayout2";
Also we can change application theme like below:
Yii::app()->theme="lightTheme";
Note: Theme name is case-sensitive. If you attempt to activate a theme that does not exist, Yii::app()->theme will return null.
Above codes can be written into beforeAction() method or every action. Please note that, if you render myView1($this->render('myView1')) and if the theme is set to darkTheme, Yii will render themes/darkTheme/views/myController/myView1.php instead of views/myConteoller/myView1.php.
To be more clear, $content will be used in layouts. Also, this is remarkable that, $content will be replaced by everything inside a view. So if you want to modify the whole page's schema, you must modify main.php layout. In front, if you want to modify the style of a view's content, you need to modify your layout.
Attempting to learn CI and going through the docs to get a better understanding. Without getting a separate library, I could make a template by including a list of views like so:
$this->load->view('header');
$this->load->view('navigation');
$this->load->view('sidenav_open');
$this->load->view('blocks/userinfo');
$this->load->view('blocks/stats');
$this->load->view('sidenav_close');
$this->load->view('content',$data);
$this->load->view('footer');
This makes sense but would I actually have that on each of my controllers (pages)? Not sure if there is a way to include this in the initial controller (welcome) and then in the others somehow reference it? Or perhaps there is something I am missing completely
You can load views from within a view file. for example, consider a generic page template called page_template.php:
<html>
<body>
<div id = "header">
<?php $this->load->view('header');?>
<?php $this->load->veiw('navigation');?>
</div>
<div id = "sidenav">
<?php $this->load->view('sidenav');?>
</div>
<div id = "content">
<?php echo $content;?>
</div>
<div id = "footer">
<?php $this->load->view('footer');?>
</body>
</html>
Load your more dynamic areas by making use of codeigniter's abiltiy to return a view as a variable in your controller:
$template['content'] = $this->load->view('content',$data,TRUE);
$this->load->view('page_template',$template);
By passing TRUE to the load function, CI will return the data from the view rather than output to the screen.
Your sidenav section could be it's own view file, sidenav.php, where you have your 'blocks' hard-coded or loaded similar to the above example.
I've done it both ways, including every stinking bit of views in each controller method, and by using a page template that loads sub-views and dynamic areas, and by far, the second method makes me happier.
Loading views from within views can lead to confusion.
Extending the Controller class hides much of the complexity that comes from that approach, but still utilises the idea of generating common views (footer, header, navigation bars, etc) by rendering them once on every page load.
Specifically, consult the CI User Guide and wiki for references to MY_Controller - you extend this by creating a MY_Controller.php file in the ./libraries directory.
In there you can call view fragments, also utilising the third-parameter=true feature of the load->view() call. You load these into $this->data - for example loading the footer into $this->data['footer']. In your various controllers, continue adding view data to $this->data. In your views - I typically use a template that does little other than skeleton HTML and some basic CSS, and then echos the entire header, footer, nav and main content lumps as variables taken from $this->data
Added bonus - if you're new to CI, you'll likely soon be looking for how to do other things that a MY_Controller will make easy for you :)
I've got a wiki page on simplifying the generation and display of view partials, as you're trying to do here, using MY_Controller at:
https://github.com/EllisLab/CodeIgniter/wiki/Header-and-Footer-and-Menu-on-every-page---jedd
I am currently working on a Magento extension, and I have overridden a core controller, which works fine.
I have now added a new action to my controller. Problem is that whenever I call the action a blank page is produced. If I echo something it is displayed correctly.
Therefore I dug into the core of the Customer module and controllers. I saw there that methods like indexAction() implement the layout this way:
<?php
public function indexAction()
{
$this->loadLayout();
$this->_initLayoutMessages('customer/session');
$this->_initLayoutMessages('catalog/session');
$this->getLayout()->getBlock('content')->append(
$this->getLayout()->createBlock('customer/account_dashboard')
);
$this->getLayout()->getBlock('head')->setTitle($this->__('My Account'));
$this->renderLayout();
}
I transferred this to my own action and the layout is now rendered correctly. Now for the question:
No matter what I enter into the ->createBlock('...') call, nothing is rendered into the content area.
How do I specify the location of my own block to be rendered as the content of the page while still decorating it with the layout?
I tried fiddling with the xml files in /design/frontend/base/default/layout/myaddon.xml but couldn't really make it work.
Covering the entirety of the Magento layout system in a single StackOverflow post is a little much, but you should be able to achieve what you want with the following.
$block = $this->getLayout()->createBlock('Mage_Core_Block_Text');
$block->setText('<h1>This is a Test</h1>');
$this->getLayout()->getBlock('content')->append($block);
Starting from the above, you should be able to build up what you need. The idea is you're creating your own blocks, and then append them to existing blocks in the layout. Ideally, you're creating your own block classes to instantiate (rather than Mage_Core_Block_Text), and using their internal template mechanism to load in phtml files (separating HTML generation from code generation).
If you're interested in learning the internals of how the layout system works, you could do a lot worse than to start with an article I wrote on the subject.