how to organize the code? - php

Question

<?php
if(arg(0)=="test"){
echo "code here";
}else{
echo '<div class="item-list">
<?php if (!empty($title)) : ?>
<h3><?php print $title; ?></h3>
<?php endif; ?>
<<?php print $options['type']; ?>>
<?php foreach ($rows as $id => $row): ?>
<li class="<?php print $classes[$id]; ?>"><?php print $row; ?></li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</<?php print $options['type']; ?>>
</div>
';}
the else echo is too long. is there a way to make it small.

Answer 1

Generally speaking, this is bad code. You are messing business logic with views. I would definitely use a very simple template system like :
Simple and Fast Template Engine
This code cannot be maintained and if it gets bigger, it would be a hell to even read. Please do yourself a favor and separate logic from views.
Take a look at this nice example from the url above, to see how code should be organized :
<?php
require_once('template.php');
$tpl = & new Template('./templates/');
$tpl->set('title', 'User Profile');
$profile = array(
'name' => 'Frank',
'email' => 'frank#bob.com',
'password' => 'ultra_secret'
);
$tpl->set_vars($profile);
echo $tpl->fetch('profile.tpl.php');
?>
The associated template looks like this:
<table cellpadding="3" border="0" cellspacing="1">
<tr>
<td>Name</td>
<td><?=$name;?></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Email</td>
<td><?=$email;?></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Password</td>
<td><?=$password;?></td>
</tr>
</table>
And the parsed output is as follows:
<table cellpadding="3" border="0" cellspacing="1">
<tr>
<td>Name</td>
<td>Frank</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Email</td>
<td>frank#bob.com</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Password</td>
<td>ultra_secret</td>
</tr>
</table>

Answer 2

I'm surprised that code would even run. Here's a better way, without using echo: just close the php interpreter while you generate your html output.
<?php
if(arg(0)=="test"){
echo "code here";
}else{
?>
<div class="item-list">
<?php if (!empty($title)) : ?>
<h3><?php print $title; ?></h3>
<?php endif; ?>
<<?php print $options['type']; ?>>
<?php foreach ($rows as $id => $row): ?>
<li class="<?php print $classes[$id]; ?>"><?php print $row; ?></li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</<?php print $options['type']; ?>>
</div>
<?
}
?>

Answer 3

<?php
$output = "<div class='item-list'>";
if(!empty($title)) $output .= "<h3>".$title."</h3>";
$output .= $options['type'];
foreach($rows as $id => $row) {
$output .= '<li class="' . $classes[$id] . '">' . $row . '</li>';
}
$ouput .= $options['type'] . "</div>";
$output = (arg(0) == "test" ? "code here" : $output);
echo $output;
?>

Answer 4

It looks nicer if you don't switch between PHP and HTML context (also indentation does help):
<?php
if (arg(0)=="test") {
echo "code here";
}
else {
echo '<div class="item-list">'
. #$title
. "<$options[type]>";
foreach ($rows as $id => $row) {
print "<li class=\"{$classes[$id]}\">$row</li>";
}
echo "</$options[type]>";
}