What is the best, easiest, and fastest way to use a template for a page. Right now I have been using a function to create my template for each page.
$title = "Kick Me";
<?php pageHtmlHeadStart($title)>
<!-- Were Javascript would go -->
<?php pageHtmlHeadEnd(); guiHeader(); ?>
Content went here.
<?php guiFooter; ?>
I uses to use includes...
<?php include('header.php'); ?>
Content went here.
<?php include('footer.php') ?>
I was thinking about using PHP Object to do the same thing too. It would run like the functions way of doing it. I would create a GUI class that would have the template wrapper and include some scripts to display content (via echo) that I use a few time over again on different page.
I probably will answer my own questions when say this... I like the current way do it with the functions. I just don't know if this is bad coding habits.
In the context of templates, there is nothing wrong to use include() statements. They make clean looking code and makes it easy to share html snippets between templates.
Whether to use instance methods, static methods or functions for "template tags" depends on the architecture of your framework or application. While generally OOP is really good thing, making everything an object doesn't magically make your code better.
PHP itself does make a good template language. There is no need to invent another "language" for templates – neither is it wrong, as long as you cache your parsed files (like Smarty does).
You may want to check out Savant and Smarty template engines. I also recommend you to study various PHP MVC frameworks and see how things are implemented there: Symfony, Kohana.
If you want a template, then use a templating language. Using PHP for templating is definitely not a good practice according to me.
Related
I'm a CS student doing a project, so its really not THAT important. I choose to use php/html as my platform. Anyway, my question is about putting the common html code into a php file, then calling functions from the file to output the html. Is this common practice? This is what I'm doing and it seems to be working OK. My goal (like everyone) is to only have to update one file and have the changes cascade through my website. I'm just curious what the industry standard way of doing this is, and if there are other good ways to do it. Here's a pseudocode example of what I got going now:
<?php
class template
{
function sideBar(){ echo <div>..sidebar stuff that is consistent on all pages..</div>
function head(){ echo css import stuff}
function scripts(){echo <script>javascript stuff</script>} //this one didnt work fyi
}
?>
and then in the html I do something like this:
<?php $template=new template; ?>
<html>
<head> <?php $template->head(); ?> </head>
<body>
<?php
$template->sidebar();
$template->scripts();
?>
</body>
</html>
I see you are learning and even tried to create your own template. I think all of good programmers at some poin was writing spaghetti code, then found out includes to include some part of page (like having the file for header, footer and even menu.
Then we started to create simple templates - like whole .html file with placeholders {{headScript}}, {{PageBody}} and str_replace them. So logic is not contained withing html. (1st mvc?)
Next progress was to create a class that we could easly add dynamic scripts, or set current menu item.
For me who started my ,,war'' with programming from structural languages evolution was like the one mentioned above.
When you already had some ways of making that - you found out that others have done quite the same as you
Zend have its views with some php code to make it dynamic or use if's and while's.
Smarty is template library - with its own code instead of php (quite php alike, but ppl tend not to be so afraid of that code).
MANY OTHERS - there is MANY other library or MVC Frameworks that found ways of splitting actual code from the html part.
And as others in comments stated - dont reinvent the wheel - i would suggest you two things
One is that you continue writing your own code (as you will learn great deal from that)
If you only need templates - use Smarty - its easy and used only as template framework.
The choice is yours, try learning, look how others are doing it and ,,invent'' your own code. It dont need to be as powerful as Smarty is (it have several years of development already - you are just starting). But this will be your code for CS.
Please explain what a template engine is, and what it is used for. What are the paragraphs below trying to say? I don't follow the author's explanation.
Although CodeIgniter does come with a simple template parser that can
be optionally used, it does not force you to use one. Template engines
simply can not match the performance of native PHP, and the syntax
that must be learned to use a template engine is usually only
marginally easier than learning the basics of PHP. Consider this block
of PHP code:
<ul>
<?php foreach ($addressbook as $name):?>
<li><?=$name?></li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>
Contrast this with the pseudo-code used by a template engine:
<ul>
{foreach from=$addressbook item="name"}
<li>{$name}</li>
{/foreach}
</ul>
Yes, the template engine example is a bit cleaner, but it comes at the
price of performance, as the pseudo-code must be converted back into
PHP to run. Since one of our goals is maximum performance, we opted to
not require the use of a template engine.
A template engine is simply a way to embed your back-end code into your html. This is more common in languages like Python and Ruby than PHP since PHP already supports embedding within html code.
That specific templating engine may be easier for those coming from other back-end languages, particularly Python or Ruby since Django and Rails have very similar-looking syntax for templates.
While not necessarily a "template engine", I typically organize my Codeigniter projects where I have a template.php view that contains the skeleton layout and the content of each page of the site/application is a separate view that is loaded within the template.php file. This way I am not rewriting code on each page.
Template engines are all about personal preference--they aren't needed, but some people feel more comfortable using them if that's what they are used to. And people are more effective the less they have to think about their workflow!
In CodeIgniter Userguide describe that CodeIgniter does come with a simple template parser that can be optionally used, it does not force you to use one.
But if u want to use template, I suggest to use this library that it is very simple.
http://williamsconcepts.com/ci/codeigniter/libraries/template/reference.html
I know things like these have been asked and answered several times before, is it just that I can't grasp the idea easily or too hard to accept that things are really like this and that.
I know that HTML is used for Front-End where the tedious work is done in the Client, and PHP is working behind the scenes (Server-Side). With so many regulations, instruction, standards, so on and so forth.. I believed I have already confused myself with these stuffs, making things (new and old) hard for me to chew and understand especially when it comes to their best uses...
Anyway, I have created a web application based on the concept of MVC tho I didn't used the strong fundamentals of the topic nor a framework, I separated the Logic, Rules and Design concerns by my own.
Unfortunately, I wound up with some issues similar to which is the right way to do the things, how this should be implemented, etc...
I end up needing to template the HTML, however, since I've used HTML as HTML itself, I end up updating/editing each and every affected file (for. eg. a web page header), unlike when I used PHP before, literally a file with a .php extension, where I can fully utilize templating, however, i read somewhere that it is not a good practice because it breaks the HTML.. so which one should I follow and how can I solve my problem, should I move to .php and then create a template page, or is there a way I could do such with HTML? if there is any, how can it be done?
Please for the meantime, don't point me to frameworks available, I want to understand basic things first before studying frameworks...
Anyone, please...
Edit...
so this is just fine and that it doesn't have any drawbacks...
main.php
<?php php stuffs ?>
<html>
<body>
HTML stuffs and some <?php php stuffs ?>
</body>
</html>
HTML has no templating capability.
It has frames and iframes, but they come with significant drawbacks and only provide include functionality.
You should use a proper templating language. This can run on the client, server or build system.
I'd recommend against running it on the client. It adds an unnecessary dependency that your visitors (including search engine indexers) have to fulfil.
PHP will do the job (it straddles the border of being a programming language and a templating language). My personal preference is for Template-Toolkit.
TT can run in your build system via the ttree utility, or you can run it on your server. There is a tutorial covering how to build websites using it.
If, and when, you move to building websites with more demanding server side requirements, then you can continue to use TT as it is supported but most of the web frameworks in Perl land (e.g. the dancer module for TT and the catalyst module for TT. Note that those links go to the hardcode documentation for the modules, and if you plan to use one of the frameworks you should start with a higher level tutorial)
HTML is a markup language - in other words it can mark up text to display to the user.
It cannot do any of the dynamic type functions you might need in a web application - like updating the date, for example.
So it is best to think of HTML documents, just like you might think of a Word document, a load of text that is displayed to the user.
As soon as you want to start using templates to display dynamic information (stuff from a database, maybe), you're going to need a scripting language. PHP is good for this.
I've had good experience with Smarty - a php templating engine.
On a side note, learning a framework can be a really useful part of the learning the basics. Most frameworks force you to do things in a good way, and sometimes the things they make you write in your code may seem a bit strange or illogical, suddenly one day the penny will drop and you'll realise why what you've been forced to do is sound from an engineering point of view.
You can look # javascript templating. I suggest you to give a try to http://mustache.github.com/
Modest is a template system that's supposed to look and feel like HTML.
The most common way to do HTML templating with PHP, is to use one of these popular templating engines :
Smarty
Twig
Latte
Mustache
Alternatively, you can just put placeholders in your HTML that look something like <% variablename %>. Just load your HTML, do a regex do find all placeholders and replace them with the corresponding variables.
Alternatively, you can load your HTML, parse it as a DOM document and then modify your DOM. I created the library DOM Query to be able to do this with a jQuery-like syntax, but you could use vanilla PHP or one of several other libraries as well.
Alternatively, you can do some HTML templating in frontend with JavaScript. If you want to do HTML templating both on frontend and backend, you might want to consider using Mustache, because Mustache templates can be used both in frontend (with JavaScript) and in backend (with PHP).
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I just want to build my first dynamic Website. I want to use PHP, MYSQL, AJAX, HTML, CSS
I have some beginner Questions:
Should the Header and Navigation Bar excluded in a header.php and print out with echo?
Should the design tags in the echo in php (like: <a>1 Test test</a>) or only return the the data
Is there a good example for making dynamic websites?
My main problem is that i don't know how to make a clear structure. Where to make the right design (print out in the php ?)
If it is really your first website, I'd actually recommend using nothing in terms of frameworks. This buys you some time to get comfortable with HTML/CSS, SQL and PHP, without overloading you with higher-level principles such as MVC (model/view/controller) and others. I'm mostly concerned that starting with a framework right away makes the learning curve to steep, and skips over things such as getting comfortable with the programming language you'll be using.
You'll eventually make a mess with way, but this will only make you appreciate the frameworks more; you can then make the transition to using a framework such as CodeIgniter, Symfony or CakePHP (or others, because there's a whole bunch more).
Other frameworks that I really like working with are Play! for Java, and Rails for Ruby. Since you stated you're a beginner, you might consider these as well.
Well, to answer all your questions at once.
The only technology you need is template.
Template is a typical PHP script, however, consists mostly of pure HTML, with some PHP code only to display dynamically generated data.
Create a main site template contains both header and navigation bar and footer everything else excluding actual page content.
Then create separate pages ("sections" of your site: news.php, links.php, etc.)
But make every page of 2 parts: getting data part and displaying data part.
While getting data, not a single character should be printed out.
If some errors occurred, display an error page.
Once you get all your data with no errors - it's time to include a main template.
A typical script may look like
<?
//include our settings, connect to database etc.
include dirname($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']).'/cfg/settings.php';
//getting required data
$DATA=dbgetarr("SELECT * FROM links");
// setting title for using in the main template
$pagetitle = "Links to friend sites";
//etc
//set page template filename
$tpl = "links.tpl.php";
//and then finally call a template:
include "main.tpl.php";
?>
where main.tpl.php is your main site template, including common parts, like header, footer, menu etc:
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>My site. <?=$pagetitle?></title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="page">
<? include $tpl ?>
</div>
</body>
</html>
and links.tpl.php is the actual page template:
<h2><?=$pagetitle?></h2>
<ul>
<? foreach($DATA as $row): ?>
<li><?=$row['name']?></li>
<? endforeach ?>
<ul>
Eventually you may come to more complex designs, like with front controller one, but for the first site this one is both easy and powerful.
Yes, I do recommend you include header and navbar scripts from another file.. where you can maintain them independently. I think that is pretty important.
I recommend you echo/print html from php, rather than insert php into html (easier when doing things like parsing $_GET/$_POST etc)
I recommend that you create a template, and another script which has functions that print (or echo) the html tags, header, footer, title bar, navbar etc. Just include the script with the functions and all your pages can have the following structure:
<?php
include 'html_display_functions.php';
/* put lines here to parse $_GET and $_POST, session_start()/$_SESSION,etc
if needed */
print_html_pre_content();
print '<p>Hello, world! or other content.</p>';
print_html_post_content();
?>
I have found this to be pretty clean, and it is easy to add functionality when you get to messing around with $_GET, $_POST and $_SESSION, etc.
I'd suggest to use some template system (Smarty would be good).
It does not really matter where do you put your header and navigation bar at first glance. When do you need to exclude Navigation bar and store it separately? When you want to have ability to include different nav. bars in different parts of your website.
For example I have a website with several subdomains: about.website.dev, special.website.dev and, let's say, terms.website.dev
At about.website.dev my navigation bar's entries will be: "Who I am", "What do I do", "How cool am I"; at special.website.dev: "Goods", "Solutions", "Tips" , etc.
Your navigation bar's template is the same: just a loop though all entries, but content differs. In this case you separate navigation bar from header. If you don't use templates, you just create three files (in this case): about.nav.php, special.nav.php and terms.nav.php and then you just include appropriate navigation bar.
If your nav. bar is all the same everywhere on your website, you can store it in header.php. Once you need to separate, it will not be difficult, but still I'd suggest to use templates though just to get used to "proper website development".
Take a look at different templating systems like Smarty or Savant. I, personally, like Django's (python) templating system most. And get used to separate your view and business logic.
IMHO, you would be better off having a look at a php-based web application framework. such as the list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_application_frameworks#PHP
Even though it may be a little more to learn upfront (the framework as well as php), they all have solid enough structures to develop dynamic websites with. Find one that is light enough and has good tutorials and you'll find yourself learning the php language along the way. I believe this will be easier than just using raw php at the beginning stage.
When you know more you can then make a judgement call on which frameworks you prefer and suit your needs or coding style or even revert back to raw php.
If you want a good book on the subject, try
MySQL/PHP Database Applications by Brad Bulger, Jay Greenspan and David Wall
What you are asking is pretty much a matter of taste. The more complex your application will be, the more work should go into an elaborate and maintainable structure.
My opinion is: Learn the basics first and then look at frameworks. It makes it a lot easier if you understand what happens under the hood.
Try Agile Toolkit, probably the easiest PHP UI framework to get started with designed for web software.
You'll step over many problems. http://agiletoolkit.org
Depending of the choice of framework/plain PHP, you should do it in accordance with their practices. For instance in Agile Toolkit you use templates, so you put your header and footer into templates/jui/shared.html file. It's explained in the first screencast.
If you reinvent the wheel and go ahead with plain PHP, then you should do better do include 'header.php'; . Good framework lets you NOT learn about inner workings of web software. Bad framework needs you to know everything anyway.
There's a lot of good answers here already - but just to add....
Do split functionality into separate include files - and use a consistent way of locating these files.
Do find a good PHP coding style and stick to it. e.g. horde, PEAR
Don't have code or HTML executed inline in include files - it should only do something when you specifically invoke it from your controlling script.
If you are including files which generate HTML, make sure they provide functionality for closing any tags they open. i.e. not just a 'header.php'
Since CSS and Javascript files should not be directly declared outside the HEAD of the HTML document do look at ways by which invoked functionality can add these into an existing HTML document - one obvious solution is to use a templating system combined with output buffering but you can also inject additional JS and CSS files into the HEAD section later in the document by using javascript.
Use MVC - http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/1.1/en/basics.mvc
See Yii-framework http://yiiframework.com, it has all you need :)
I was recently brought on to help with a project that was made up of individual HTML files with the exception of a PHP contact form. So there's not even a hint of object oriented programming, MVC, or layouts (or even PHP for that matter).
The project is quite large, but I wanted to slowly integrate the Zend Framework into this project, mostly to start using layouts. There are so many redundancies that it is such a waste of time to make small updates that should have been made in one file.
In the early days of PHP, you could separate your content blocks by including them in each page (a header and footer for example). Now, using MVC frameworks like the Zend Framework, you can create layout files that include the individual page content (views) using a view helper. I really like this because it means I only have to "include" my header, or footer, in one place.
However, I'm not sure how this would work without dispatching/bootstrapping the application (i.e. using the Zend Framework MVC components as standalone components instead). What would be the best approach to switching the site over to use layouts? How would it work? Is this even a good idea?
I've recently begun a transformation of a mish-mash file structure* to make use of ZF's layout & views. The goal is to move all files containing html into the recommended file structure for layouts and views. This is how to prepare for it:
Extract all markup from each file, keep variables in it but no logic. Name this file /application/views/scripts/page/view.phtml (for example /application/views/scripts/index/login.phtml)
Create a skeleton that fits most pages as /application/layouts/scripts/layout.phtml and let it contain something like this:
<?php echo $this->doctype('XHTML1_STRICT'); ?>
<html>
<head>
<?php echo $this->headLink(); ?>
</head>
<body>
<div id="wrapper">
<?php echo $this->layout()->content; ?>
</div>
</body>
</html>
(Add Zend to your include path and register its Autoloader.) Create a file that will be included in all of your files (unless you have a single point of entry, in that case - place it there!) Create a reference to your layout, equivalent to this:
$view = new Zend_View();
$view->setScriptPath('/application/views/scripts');
$layout = new Zend_Layout();
$layout->setLayoutPath('/application/layouts/scripts');
$layout->setView($view);
Zend_Registry::getInstance()->set('layout', $layout);
Each php file you have left (with logic, not html) needs to have access to the layout, and modifying it:
$layout = Zend_Registry::getInstance()->get('layout');
$view = $layout->getView();
$view->headLink()->appendStylesheet('/css/a_css_file.css');
// most important step, done automatically when using MVC, but now you have to do it manually
$layout->content = $view->render('index/login.phtml');
echo $layout->render();
Most important next step is adding another layout:
// /application/layouts/scripts/blank.phtml
<?php echo $this->doctype('XHTML1_STRICT'); ?>
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<?php echo $this->layout()->content; ?>
</body>
</html>
and in one of your logic-containg files
$layout = Zend_Registry::getInstance()->get('layout');
$layout->setLayout('blank');
Ideally, in a near future you can start adapting to a MVC-like structure by looking at a design pattern like Front Controller.
*One file: model, controller, html, in no logical order.
You can certainly use Zend_Layout in isolation and it's detailed in the manual:
28.2.3. Using Zend_Layout as a Standalone Component
I believe you would then need to capture you script's output via output buffering, and pass it to the layout to be echoed.
This situation is not ideal, and without moving to the full MVC I'd probably recommend using a different, basic templating system or following the advice in other comments here.
Personally, I'd recommend not using the Zend Framework if you're only planning on using it for template/layout management. There are much better solutions for templating with PHP, with Smarty being the obvious choice (formerly part of the PHP project).
Smarty does provide a reasonably easy integration with the Zend Framework, if you need to do this at a later date, and there are a few articles on it on the Zend DevZone.
I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but the bbc has some videos where they use parts of the zend framework without using the whole MVC. I think they are in parts 4 & 5, http://bbcwebdevelopers.blip.tv/
Zend_Layout isn't really about including a header or footer, rather it is best used to insert various bits of content into a single large template. It's pretty sophisticated and as well as common use cases such as inserting the main body of content you can insert HEAD tags such as CSS, scripts or title tags and custom placeholders such as navigation.
From your description I'd go for a simple PHP include header and footer solution. It will be easier to implement and will remove any duplication of common template elements.
If you really want to use this to learn Zend Framework you could use Zend_Layout in the standalone mode as dcaunt suggests. There is no point trying to use the MVC bootstrap system since your site doesn't appear to need it. I'd simply do something like use URL rewriting to send all *.html requests to a single PHP file which then starts Zend_Layout and loads the requested file into the $layout->content variable via something like file_get_contents()
You could then also use ZF for the form processing if you wished.
i dont think you can do this by default, i think you need to use the Zend View as well.
But i am sure you can modify the Zend_Layout to work with your existing setup. Sorry i cant be more specific on how to do this, because it depends a lot of what is currently in place.
As a starting point i recommend looking into Smarty integrations into Zend to see how you can modify it.