I wanted to know the command which is exactly equal to php require in my GSP (Grails server pages) or in Groovy.
I know I can use <g:include/> but wanted to know is there any command which will fulfill php require in groovy/grails?
An exact equivalent really depends on the context of what require() is being used for in the PHP script.
PHP and Servlet environments operate differently. Using require() in PHP simply locates another PHP script and executes it. That imperative-style operation doesn't apply as well to the more object-oriented Java/Grails/Servlets.
There are a couple of possible equivalents, depending on what you're trying to accomplish:
<g:include/>
Includes the response of another controller/action or view in the
current response
e.g.
<g:include controller="foo" action="bar"/>
What this will do is invoke a different controller/action and insert the response into the current page. This would be similar to PHP if your require() was rendering some markup.
View templates:
If you're just trying to include common pieces of markup in several pages, these might be what you're looking for. You can create template views and use <g:render/> to include them in your GSPs. I suspect this is what you're after, but see my "Update" below for some advice about this.
#page import
e.g.
<% #page import="com.example.mypackage.MyClass" %>
This will make MyClass available to the GSP, which would be similar to require() if the require was specifying some library classes or functions to be used in other PHP scripts. However, using this pretty much screams code smell, since almost anything you'd be using this for would be more appropriate in a controller action or a service.
Update:
Seeing your other question, I'll venture you're simply trying to include a common piece of GSP/HTML in several different views, which kind of goes against what Grails provides for you with its layouts and templates.
If you're trying to "require", say, "blog-header.php" in all of your GSPs, you'd more likely want to just include the contents of the header within a layout, e.g. grails-app/views/layouts/main.gsp, and then use that layout in the views that require the header.
Maybe you should try grails 'template'.
A template is a fragment of view that can be used any time in any view, this is to promove DRY..
<g:render template="myTemplate" model="['object1':object1,'object2':object2]" />
In this case should exists a GSP called _myTemplate.gsp and in this template is working with two objects, you could do a template with only content and no treating objects if you wish.
In the above call the template is invoked in a view in the same folder with the template but you could call it from another view in other folder:
<g:render template="other/myTemplate" model="['object1':object1,'object2':object2]" />
And the pattern for the name of template is the same...
Check it out...
Related
I have been designing websites for a while now, but there is one thing that I have never been quite sure of when using PHP and HTML. Is it better to have the whole document in PHP and echo HTML like so:
<?php
doSomething();
echo "<div id=\"some_div\">Content</div>";
?>
Or have a HTML file like so and just add in the PHP:
<html>
<body>
<?php doSomething(); ?>
<div id="some_div">Content</div>
</body>
</html>
It seems tidier to echo HTML, especially if lots of PHP gets used throughout the page, but doing so loses all formatting of the HTML i.e. colors in the IDE etc.
There are varying opinions on this. I think there are two good ways:
Use a templating engine like Smarty that completely separates code and presentation.
Use your second example, but when mixing PHP into HTML, only output variables. Do all the code logic in one block before outputting anything, or a separate file. Like so:
<?php $content = doSomething();
// complex calculations
?>
<html>
<body>
<?php echo $content; ?>
<div id="some_div">Content</div>
</body>
</html>
Most full-fledged application frameworks bring their own styles of doing this; in that case, it's usually best to follow the style provided.
I think this would depend on your group's or your own decided convention. And it can and should vary depending on what type of file you're working in. If you follow the MVC pattern then your views should be the latter. If you're writing a class or some non-output script/code then you should use the former.
Try to keep a separation of display or formatting of output and the logic that provides the data. For instance let's say you need to make a quick page that runs a simple query and outputs some data. In this case (where there is no other existing infrastructure or framework) you could place the logic in an include or in the top or the bottom of the file. Example:
<?php
# define some functions here that provide data in a raw format
?>
<html>
<body>
<?php foreach($foo = data_function($some_parameter) as $key => $value): ?>
<p>
<?=$value;?>
</p>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</body>
</html>
Or you could place the logic and function definitions in an include file or at the bottom of the file.
Now if you're producing some sort of class that has output (it really shouldn't) then you would echo the HTML or return it from the method being called. Preferably return it so that it can be output whenever and however the implementer would like.
The syntax highlighting is an important benefit of the second method, as you said. But also, if you're following good practices where logic and presentation are separated, you will naturally find that your files that contain HTML are almost entirely HTML, which then, naturally, leads to your second method again. This is the standard for MVC frameworks and the like. You'll have a bunch of files that are all PHP, doing logic, and then when that's done they'll include a presentation file which is mostly HTML with a sprinkling of PHP.
Simple:
More PHP - close HTML in PHP. When you generate HTML code in PHP, when you are doing something like a class, so it is better to make it in echo.
Less PHP - close PHP in HTML. This is stuff like just putting vars into fields of HTML stuff, like forms... And such.
The best approach is to separate the HTML from the PHP using template system or at least some kind of HTML skeleton like:
<main>
<header/>
<top-nav/>
<left-col>
<body />
</left-col>
<right-col />
<footer/>
</main>
Each node represents a template file e.g. main.php, hrader.php and so on. Than you have to separate the PHP code from the templates as something like functions.php and fineally use your second approach for template files and keeping functions clean of "echos" and HTML.
If you can, use a template engine instead.
Although it is slightly easier at first to mix your HTML and PHP, separating them makes things much easier to maintain later on.
I would recommend checking out TemplateLite which is based on Smarty but is a little more light weight.
I've reached a conclusion that using views in MVC framework e.g. Laravel, Yii, CodeIgniter is the best approach even if you are not displaying the html straight away.
Inside the view do all the echoing and looping of prepared variables, don't create or call functions there, unless formatting existing data e.g. date to specific format date('Y-m-d', strtodate(123456789)). It should be used only for creating HTML, not processing it. That's what frameworks have controllers for.
If using plain PHP, create you own view function to pass 3 variables to - html file, array of variables, and if you want to get output as string or print it straight away for the browser. I don't find a need for it as using frameworks is pretty much a standard. (I might improve the answer in the future by creating the function to get view generated HTML) Please see added edit below as a sample.
Frameworks allow you to get the HTML of the view instead of displaying it. So if you need to generate separate tables or other elements, pass the variables to a view, and return HTML.
Different fremeworks may use various type of templating languages e.g. blade. They help formatting the data, and essentially make templates easier to work with. It's also not necessary to use them for displaying data, or if forced to use it by the framework, just do required processing before posting the variables, and just "print" it using something like {{ yourVariable }} or {{ yourVariable.someProperty }}
Edit: here's a plain PHP (not framework PHP) - simple-php-view repository as a sample view library that allows to generate HTML using variables. Could be suitable for school/university projects or such where frameworks may not be allowed.
The repository allows to generate HTML at any time by calling a function and passing required variables to it, similar to frameworks. Separately generated HTML can then be combined by another view.
It depends on the context. If you are outputting a lot of HTML with attributes, you're going to get sick of escaping the quotation marks in PHP strings. However, there is no need to use ?><p><? instead of echo "<p>"; either. It's really just a matter of personal taste.
The second method is what I usually use. And it was the default method for me too. It is just to handy to get php to work inside html rather than echo out the html code. But I had to modify the httpd.conf file as my server just commented out the php code.
I am using zend framework.
My structure is (only included files and folders needed for this question):
application
>configs
>controllers
>forms
>images
>layouts
>scripts
>layout.phtml
>models
>styles
>style.css
>views
>scripts
>index
>index.phtml
Bootstrap.php
docs
library
logs
public
test
I have got the layout working properly. However, I want to ask a couple of questions in order to get my set up perfect for the way I want it.
Is application>styles a good place for the stylesheet to be? If not what's the recommended?
How do i add the stylesheet to the layout?
In my layout I have a title tag : <title>Text</title>. How do I pass values from my controllers to it?
Stylesheets need to be accessible from the browser, so typically you will put these somewhere in the public directory, such as public/css
There are several ways, including placing rel tags in your view/layout, but my preferred option is to use the viewHelper within your controller:
$this->view->headLink()->setStylesheet('/css/style.css');
Then your call to headLink() in the layout file will automatically include the stylesheet.
The way I have done this is to use the Zend_Registry in the past. There may be better ways.
Maybe I dont understand the MVC convention well enough, but I'm trying to include a file to the index.phtml view for the main Index Controller, and it keeps giving me an Application Error. I have no idea what this error is or why its not working. But I'm using a standard include_once(...) in the view.
Is this even allowed?
A view in Zend is still just a php file. If you are getting errors in a view using include_once(), they are probably because the file you want can't be found in your include path. Trying dumping get_include_path() into the view and you will see what directories PHP is searching to find your included file.
As an alternative to include_once, you could use
<? echo $this->render('{module}/{action}.phtml') ?>
to pull in the file.
There are partial views for such purpose
http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/zend.view.helpers.html (ctrl+f Partial Helper)
The view is only the HTML that will be rendered. It's the very last thing that is processed. The controller is called first, then it calls whatever models are needed within. After passing all the data to the view, the view's HTML is rendered.
In short: whatever you include in the view, the controller isn't aware of it. You need to run your PHP includes earlier in the code. If you do it in the controller, it should work OK, I suppose (not tested, so I don't guarantee anything).
You can use Zend View Helpers for this purpose
last time this works fine for me. You can try this:
<?php echo $this->partial('common/left_menu.phtml'); ?>
I have been designing websites for a while now, but there is one thing that I have never been quite sure of when using PHP and HTML. Is it better to have the whole document in PHP and echo HTML like so:
<?php
doSomething();
echo "<div id=\"some_div\">Content</div>";
?>
Or have a HTML file like so and just add in the PHP:
<html>
<body>
<?php doSomething(); ?>
<div id="some_div">Content</div>
</body>
</html>
It seems tidier to echo HTML, especially if lots of PHP gets used throughout the page, but doing so loses all formatting of the HTML i.e. colors in the IDE etc.
There are varying opinions on this. I think there are two good ways:
Use a templating engine like Smarty that completely separates code and presentation.
Use your second example, but when mixing PHP into HTML, only output variables. Do all the code logic in one block before outputting anything, or a separate file. Like so:
<?php $content = doSomething();
// complex calculations
?>
<html>
<body>
<?php echo $content; ?>
<div id="some_div">Content</div>
</body>
</html>
Most full-fledged application frameworks bring their own styles of doing this; in that case, it's usually best to follow the style provided.
I think this would depend on your group's or your own decided convention. And it can and should vary depending on what type of file you're working in. If you follow the MVC pattern then your views should be the latter. If you're writing a class or some non-output script/code then you should use the former.
Try to keep a separation of display or formatting of output and the logic that provides the data. For instance let's say you need to make a quick page that runs a simple query and outputs some data. In this case (where there is no other existing infrastructure or framework) you could place the logic in an include or in the top or the bottom of the file. Example:
<?php
# define some functions here that provide data in a raw format
?>
<html>
<body>
<?php foreach($foo = data_function($some_parameter) as $key => $value): ?>
<p>
<?=$value;?>
</p>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</body>
</html>
Or you could place the logic and function definitions in an include file or at the bottom of the file.
Now if you're producing some sort of class that has output (it really shouldn't) then you would echo the HTML or return it from the method being called. Preferably return it so that it can be output whenever and however the implementer would like.
The syntax highlighting is an important benefit of the second method, as you said. But also, if you're following good practices where logic and presentation are separated, you will naturally find that your files that contain HTML are almost entirely HTML, which then, naturally, leads to your second method again. This is the standard for MVC frameworks and the like. You'll have a bunch of files that are all PHP, doing logic, and then when that's done they'll include a presentation file which is mostly HTML with a sprinkling of PHP.
Simple:
More PHP - close HTML in PHP. When you generate HTML code in PHP, when you are doing something like a class, so it is better to make it in echo.
Less PHP - close PHP in HTML. This is stuff like just putting vars into fields of HTML stuff, like forms... And such.
The best approach is to separate the HTML from the PHP using template system or at least some kind of HTML skeleton like:
<main>
<header/>
<top-nav/>
<left-col>
<body />
</left-col>
<right-col />
<footer/>
</main>
Each node represents a template file e.g. main.php, hrader.php and so on. Than you have to separate the PHP code from the templates as something like functions.php and fineally use your second approach for template files and keeping functions clean of "echos" and HTML.
If you can, use a template engine instead.
Although it is slightly easier at first to mix your HTML and PHP, separating them makes things much easier to maintain later on.
I would recommend checking out TemplateLite which is based on Smarty but is a little more light weight.
I've reached a conclusion that using views in MVC framework e.g. Laravel, Yii, CodeIgniter is the best approach even if you are not displaying the html straight away.
Inside the view do all the echoing and looping of prepared variables, don't create or call functions there, unless formatting existing data e.g. date to specific format date('Y-m-d', strtodate(123456789)). It should be used only for creating HTML, not processing it. That's what frameworks have controllers for.
If using plain PHP, create you own view function to pass 3 variables to - html file, array of variables, and if you want to get output as string or print it straight away for the browser. I don't find a need for it as using frameworks is pretty much a standard. (I might improve the answer in the future by creating the function to get view generated HTML) Please see added edit below as a sample.
Frameworks allow you to get the HTML of the view instead of displaying it. So if you need to generate separate tables or other elements, pass the variables to a view, and return HTML.
Different fremeworks may use various type of templating languages e.g. blade. They help formatting the data, and essentially make templates easier to work with. It's also not necessary to use them for displaying data, or if forced to use it by the framework, just do required processing before posting the variables, and just "print" it using something like {{ yourVariable }} or {{ yourVariable.someProperty }}
Edit: here's a plain PHP (not framework PHP) - simple-php-view repository as a sample view library that allows to generate HTML using variables. Could be suitable for school/university projects or such where frameworks may not be allowed.
The repository allows to generate HTML at any time by calling a function and passing required variables to it, similar to frameworks. Separately generated HTML can then be combined by another view.
It depends on the context. If you are outputting a lot of HTML with attributes, you're going to get sick of escaping the quotation marks in PHP strings. However, there is no need to use ?><p><? instead of echo "<p>"; either. It's really just a matter of personal taste.
The second method is what I usually use. And it was the default method for me too. It is just to handy to get php to work inside html rather than echo out the html code. But I had to modify the httpd.conf file as my server just commented out the php code.
I am wondering how I can break up my index.php homepage to multiple php pages (i.e. header.php, footer.php) and build a working index.php page using those separate php pages. I know WordPress uses this with different functions like:
GetHeader();
GetFoodter();
But when I tried to use those functions, it errors. I am guessing they are not native functions to PHP.
What would I need to do to get this functionality?
include 'header.php';
include 'footer.php';
Go with an MVC framework like Zend's. That way you'll keep more maintainable code.
You could do the following:
<?php
include('header.php');
// Template Processing Code
include('footer.php');
?>
The include() statement includes and evaluates the specified file.
so if you create index.php as:
<?php
include("1.php"); include("2.php"); include("3.php");
?>
processing it will combine three php files (result of parsing them by php) into output of your index.php ... check more at http://pl.php.net/manual/pl/function.include.php
Also, if i recall correctly, you can also use
<?php
require('filename');
?>
the difference being, if php can't find the file you want to include, it will stop right there instead of keep excecuting the script...
If your server is configured accordingly, you can use PHP's built in auto append/prepend settings and set it in a .htaccess file:
php_value auto_prepend_file "header.php"
php_value auto_append_file "footer.php"
Info:
www.php.net/manual/en/configuration.changes.php#configuration.changes.apache
www.php.net/ini.core#ini.auto-prepend-file
www.php.net/ini.core#ini.auto-append-file
I realize this is an old question, which already has a perfectly valid accepted answer, but I wanted to add a little more information.
While include 'file.php'; is fine on it's own, there are benefits to wrapping these sorts of things up in functions, such as providing scope.
I'm somewhat new to PHP, so last night I was playing with breaking things into files such as 'header.php', 'footer.php', 'menu.php' for the first time.
One issue I had was that I wanted to have the menu item for a page/section highlighted differently when you were on that page or in that section. I.e. the same way 'Questions' is highlighted in orange on this page on StackOverflow. I could define a variable on each page which would be used in the include, but this made the variable sort of global. If you wrap the include in a function, you can define variables with local scope to handle it.
You could also look into a template engine like Smarty. That way you define the the header and footer and all other common elements in a single file, then fill in the rest through smaller templates or direct output.
Use include statements to just include those files to your Page
I think it's
include '[filename]'