Improve combination of HTML and PHP? - php

Question

Is there a better solution, apart from a template engine like smarty, for huge code like this?
<table class="table table-striped dataTable table-bordered">
<thead>
<tr>
<?php
$output = '<th class="sorting_numeric_html sorting_default_desc">' . TH_ORDERS_ID . '</th>';
$output .= '<th class="sorting_date_eu">' . TH_ORDERS_DATE . '</th>';
$output .= '<th>' . TH_ORDERS_NAME . '</th>';
$output .= '<th>' . TH_ORDERS_STATUS . '</th>';
$output .= '<th class="sorting_disabled">' . TH_ACTION . '</th>';
echo $output;
?>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<?php
$output = '';
foreach ($orders['RESULT'] as $order) {
$output .= '<tr>';
$output .= '<td class="text-right">' . inc_buildLink(inc_url(FILENAME_ORDERS, 'oID=' . $order['orders_id'] . '&action=edit'), $order['orders_id']) . '</td>';
$output .= '<td>' . inc_datetime_short($order['date_purchased']) . '</td>';
$output .= '<td>' . inc_buildLink(inc_url(FILENAME_CUSTOMERS, 'cID=' . $order['customers_id']. '&action=edit'), $order['delivery_name']) . '</td>';
$output .= '<td class="status' . $order['orders_status'] . '">' . $order['orders_status_name'] . '</td>';
$output .= '<td class="btn-group actions">';
$output .= inc_buildLink(inc_url(FILENAME_ORDERS, 'oID=' . $order['orders_id'] . '&action=edit'),
inc_image(DIR_WS_ICONS . 'edit.png', ''), TOOLTIP_EDIT, 'class="tip btn btn-mini"');
$output .= modal_delete_orders($order['customers_name'], $order['orders_id'], 'class="tip btn btn-mini"');
$output .= '</td>';
$output .= '</tr>';
}
echo $output;
?>
</tbody>
</table>
For sure Smarty would be a solution, but is there another way?

Answer 1

I'd do it like this, makes it easier to read as the HTML is a little bit more separated from the PHP:
<table class="table table-striped dataTable table-bordered">
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="sorting_numeric_html sorting_default_desc"><?php echo TH_ORDERS_ID; ?></th>
<th class="sorting_date_eu"><?php echo TH_ORDERS_DATE; ?></th>
<th><?php echo TH_ORDERS_NAME; ?></th>
<th><?php echo TH_ORDERS_STATUS; ?></th>
<th class="sorting_disabled"><?php echo TH_ACTION; ?></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<?php foreach ($orders['RESULT'] as $order): ?>
<tr>
<td class="text-right"><?php echo inc_buildLink(inc_url(FILENAME_ORDERS, 'oID=' . $order['orders_id'] . '&action=edit'), $order['orders_id']); ?></td>
<td><?php echo inc_datetime_short($order['date_purchased']); ?></td>
<td><?php echo inc_buildLink(inc_url(FILENAME_CUSTOMERS, 'cID=' . $order['customers_id'] . '&action=edit'), $order['delivery_name']); ?></td>
<td class="status<?php echo $order['orders_status']; ?>"><?php echo $order['orders_status_name']; ?></td>
<td class="btn-group actions">
<?php echo inc_buildLink(inc_url(FILENAME_ORDERS, 'oID=' . $order['orders_id'] . '&action=edit'),
inc_image(DIR_WS_ICONS . 'edit.png', ''), TOOLTIP_EDIT, 'class="tip btn btn-mini"'),
modal_delete_orders($order['customers_name'], $order['orders_id'], 'class="tip btn btn-mini"'); ?>
</td>
</tr>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</tbody>
Instead of <php echo you can also use <?=, but lots of people dislike the use of it. It's only 4 more characters to put echo so i'd stick with that!

Answer 2

Yes, you normally want to separate the most you can PHP and HTML, leaving the html alone, like this:
<table class="table table-striped dataTable table-bordered">
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="sorting_numeric_html sorting_default_desc">
<?php echo TH_ORDERS_ID; ?>
</th>
<th class="sorting_date_eu">
<?php echo TH_ORDERS_DATE; ?>
</th>
...
If your system supports it, you can try instead changing the <?php echo for <?=, which is known as short tags as read in the manual, in which case the code would look much neater:
<table class="table table-striped dataTable table-bordered">
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="sorting_numeric_html sorting_default_desc">
<?= TH_ORDERS_ID; ?>
</th>
<th class="sorting_date_eu">
<?= TH_ORDERS_DATE; ?>
</th>
...
However, a couple of notes that would require you to change your code further down. They might not be for now, but they more for your future code:
Why are you echoing constants? Normally you'd like to store your data in variables and then echo them.
It's better normally to avoid putting too many classes in the html since it's the CSS what gets cached better normally. I'd go with an id="tableorders" and then simply class="id", class="date" and so on.