Including a php file with includes into a smarty template - php

Question

I want to include my header into a script that uses smarty templates. From searching this site, I am partially there, but not quite:
{include file='/home/username/public_html/header.php'}
This successfully includes the image in the header, but neither of two includes the header contains. One of the includes is a php file, and the other is html (my bootstrap nav bar). I seems from my searches that I need to make a plugin, which according to one post is "easy", but I can't find an example of how to accomplish this?
based on codefreaks inststructions, here's what I did. I'm sure the instructions are correct, I'm just not interpreting them correctly, as this isn't displaying anything.
Here are the three files, with their paths in relation to the public_html directory, and what I added to them. Everything is exactly as I put it: no words here are placeholders.
file 1
sitewide/myheader.php
<?
ob_start();
--- I didn't change the original content here --
$output = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean(); ?>
File 2
newscript/includes/page_header.php
$smarty = new Smarty();
require "/home/username/public_html/sitewide/myheader.php";
$smarty->assign('myheader', $output);
$smarty->display('../themes/default/template/header.tpl');
File 3
newscript/themes/default/template/header.tpl
{$myheader}

Answer 1

I dont think you can include your php file in smarty.
As samrty is a template engine,
PHP pages executes first, then it sends the data to your smarty page.
Solution : Pass all data needed from php page to smarty, and include html page, with smarty variables.

Answer 2

After getting feedback from you and testing myself, I figured out you might not have set up smarty properly. Follow instructions at http://www.smarty.net/quick_install to install it properly. My final directory structure after setting up properly looks like:
Once you have it set it up properly this is code I used in files:
index.php
<?php
echo "hello";
require_once "libs/Smarty.class.php";
$smarty = new Smarty();
$smarty->setTemplateDir('smarty/templates');
$smarty->setCompileDir('smarty/templates_c');
$smarty->setCacheDir('smarty/cache');
$smarty->setConfigDir('smarty/configs');
require "header.php";
$smarty->assign('header', $output);
$smarty->testInstall();
$smarty->display('smarty.tpl');
echo "hello";
?>
header.php:
<?php
ob_start();
?>
hello honey bunny
<?php
$output = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
?>
Put smarty.tpl in templates folder!
{$header}hellos

Answer 3

I am trying to do a very similar thing except all I want is some global PHP constants that I have defined in a stand alone constants.php file using define.
I want those same said constants in my smarty templates so I've been trying to include constants.php in the smarty template but this is better a better way to do this:
In constants.php
$_CONSTANT['TBL'] = TRUE;
$_CONSTANT['FLD'] = FALSE;
$_CONSTANT['DB_READ_SUCCESS'] = 1;
$_CONSTANT['DB_WRITE_SUCCESS'] = 1;
$_CONSTANT['DB_WRITE_ERROR_UNKNOWN'] = -100;
//*** Copy the $_CONSTANT array to PHP define() to make global PHP constants
foreach($_CONSTANT as $key => $value) {
define($key, $value);
}
Then in my smarty set up function I do this:
foreach ($_CONSTANT as $key => $value) {
Smarty->assign($key, $value);
}
And really I think variable (or constant) values is all you really want in your Smarty templates to keep your view layer separate from your model and controller layers.
Post Script:
In fact you can use this technique to pass your PHP constants, using Smarty, to JavaScript allowing you to declare you constants in one place for three different environments: PHP, Smarty, and JavaScript.
Here's how:
Call the following from your smarty set up function:
public function AssignJSConstants($values) {
$js = '';
foreach ($values as $key => $value) {
if ($key != 'CR') {
if (is_string($value)) {
$js = $js.$key.' = "'.$value.'";';
} else {
$js = $js.$key.' = '.$value.';';
}
$js = $js.CR.' ';
}
}
$this->Smarty->assign('JavaScriptConstants', $js);
}
And then declare the following in your smarty template:
<script>
//php constants that exported to JavaScript
{$JavaScriptConstants}
</script>
Which will give you this in your HTML:
<script>
//php constants that exported to JavaScript
TBL = 1;
FLD = 0;
DB_READ_SUCCESS = 1;
DB_READ_ERROR_UNKNOWN = -10;
DB_WRITE_SUCCESS = 1;
DB_WRITE_ERROR_UNKNOWN = -100;
</script>