I've been playing around with PHPTAL for the last couple of days. Overall I really like it. It's been much easier to get into than most others I've looked into. I am having one particular problem, though.
Here's the issue. I am trying to nest two templates. Let's say InnerClass has this template:
<div>Hello World!</div>
OuterClass has the following template:
<div tal:content="myVar">This text should be replaced with the HTML above.</div>
InnerClass also has a method called render(), which essentially calls themplate's execute() method and returns the content. So I do this in the outer class:
$template->myVar = $innerClassObject->render();
I, then, display the content of the OuterClass. The problem is that the rendered HTML of the inner class comes escaped and I see ">" and "<" instead of actual tags. It seems that myVar is completely escaped before its content is displayed.
Since this approach does not work, what is the best way to nest PHPTAL templates? I assume it's possible and it's just lack of knowledge on my end, so any input is appreciated.
If you want to insert arbitrary markup in a template, then use structure keyword:
<div tal:content="structure variable_that_contains_html"/>
but if you want to embed one PHPTAL template in another, then use macros:
macros.xhtml:
<div metal:define-macro="greeting">Hello World!</div>
page.xhtml:
<body><tal:block metal:use-macro="macros.xhtml/greeting"/></body>
Related
So I'm importing ExpressionEngine fields into a php array. I want to display one field, called {gearboxx_body}, unless that field has more then 300 characters, in which case I want to display a field called {article_blurb}. I'm pretty sure there isn't a way to do this just in ExpressionEngine fields and conditionals, so I tried some PHP, which I'm just starting to learn:
<?php
$info = array('{gearboxx_body}','{article_blurb}');
if(mb_strlen($info[0]) <= 300)
echo($info[0]);
}
else {
echo($info[1]);
}
?>
So that works well, but there's a problem. If the tag includes any apostrophes or quote marks, it ends the string and the page won't load. So what can I do about this? I've tried to replace the quote marks in the string, but I have to have loaded the string from the fields first, and as soon as I do that the page is already broken.
Hopefully that made sense. Any suggestions?
I would recommend you handle this in an EE plugin rather than in the template:
Faster to render (because you don't need the overhead of PHP in the templates)
More secure and reliable
Faster to develop once you get the basics of EE development down which is a useful life skill
All around best-practice
The plugin I have in mind takes three parameters:
body, blurb and character limit.
Let's say you call your plugin "Blurby". In the template you would just have this:
{exp:blurby body="{gearboxx_body}" blurb="{article_blurb}" char_limit="300"}
It variably returns either of your fields based on the logic you define in the plugin itself.
See plugin developer documentation.
Alternatively you could use the dreaded HEREDOC syntax to set variables before passing them into your array:
$body = <<<EOT
{gearboxx_body}
EOT;
$blurb = <<<EOT
{article_blurb}
EOT;
I'm looking for something that Is really hard for me to do.. I really tried to search all over the net for Solution, But I couldn't seem to find any. I also tried doing this for hours.
What I'm doing: Making a theme for PHPBB2, Installed a MOD that can include PHP in themes.
What is the problem: When I'm doing {} tags in php, It just can't echo those tags.
Let's say I have a function that creates a Table for me, like that:
CreateMyTable(Name,Size,Color);
I put in the function those strings:
CreateMyTable("{FORUM_NAME}",1000,red);
The title stays blank, I actually want it to echo {FORUM_NAME}.
How can I do this?
P.S: I can't do this
CreateMyTable(?>{FORUM_NAME}<?php , 1000, red);
It's not going to work becuase <? = <!-- PHP --> , ?> = <!-- ENDPHP -->.
Thanks for your help :)
If you look in the PHPbb2 template class, you'll find that the template is simply an evaluated set of PHP using the eval() function. You can either print the contents of the PHP before it is parsed using eval() and then use the variable name that the template gives, IE something like (which may not work depending how your template is setup):
CreateMyTable(((isset($this->_tpldata['.'][0]['FORUM_NAME'])) ? $this->_tpldata['.'][0]['FORUM_NAME'] : '' ),1000,randomcolor());
Please note, in order to do it similar to the way above you'd actually have to insert this into your template class.
An much better solution is to avoid using the mod that allows PHP in templates and use JavaScript in the templates to create the function, then print a call to that JavaScript function.
This will work:
CreateMyTable(FORUM_NAME,1000,red);
I also noticed that red is used without quotes - is this also a constant? If it's a variable it needs to have a $ in front of it. If it's a string it should be between quotes.
CreateMyTable(FORUM_NAME,1000,"red");
Is there any way to use preg_match or any other similar smarty function to do the following thing:
{foreach $resultsdata as $resultsData}
<div class="site_text">
{$resultsData.text|substr:0:500}
</div>
{/foreach}
I want to filter $resultsData.text and display only one part of this text.
I'm asking because there's a plugin you may use. But it's only for Smarty 3, as I see.
By the way, from your code it seems preg_replace would be a better solution, and it's already internal function - regex_replace - for it.
You are taking idea of templates wrong.
Template should be used only to display data.
But data itself have to be prepared in the business logic part.
Otherwise there will be no good from templates at all.
My friend writes everything using phps echo.
I mean he starts <? and echo everything, including header, main part, footer, he even has style.php file where he echos some css and then includes it in main project.
question is why is it better to do that way ? Or is it better at all?
Cause in dreamveawer everything is red. I mean it understands evrything as phps srtings and makes all text red.
If you do not use echo you have different colors in code and you can see where is ccs, javascript or html.
So what's better to write normally or I should try the same "echo everything" practice ?
No, it is no better to do that way.
Do not use echo to output HTML but divide your code into 2 parts - business logic part and presentation logic part, a latter one consists of mostly HTML with PHP used only to output data coming from the business logic part
a little example of such a template:
<? if ($err): ?>
<? foreach($err as $e): ?>
<div class="err"><?=$e?></div>
<? endforeach ?>
<? endif ?>
<form>
<input type="text" name="name" value="<?=$form['name']?>">
<textarea name="comments"><?=$form['comments']?></textarea>
<input type="submit">
</form>
If that's how he does it, then please slap him across the back of the head for us please?
But seriously, there is this thing called MVC, please take a look at it, comprehend it, implement it and explain it to your friend.
That's horrendous.
You should try not to mix PHP and HTML if you can help it.
In some cases you will be interleaving some dynamic content with static content (and you could use a templating engine for that); but outputting the entire HTML document via PHP statements is a clear sign of insanity and sadism.
You might be interested in templates. They're not html nor php, but a combination between these two.
The advantage is that you can see/edit/update/maintain your code much easier, because the actual php part is somewhat separated from the html markup.
The main disadvantage is that it might be a bit slower, since php reads the template, makes replacements and then spits out the html.
Here's a link to some of the most used php template engines.
Using HTML code instead of echoing has the advantage that the editor (Dreamweaver in your case) can do syntax highlighting. This will help you find errors in your HTML faster.
Also, you don't have to think too much about escaping quotes in your HTML (you still need to think about proper escaping your PHP variables anyway).
I can think of several ways the bad habit of echoing everything can be formed:
Errors from missing PHP tags while intermingling PHP and HTML. For a newbie it takes a while to wrap your head around the concept of using one language (PHP) to write code in another language (HTML). I remember when I first learned PHP I thought it would be easier to echo everything instead of opening and closing PHP tags all the time.
Coming from a language background where every output must be printed explicitly.
Having read some insane micro-optimization article on the web that claims echoing is faster or more secure.
So I've always developed PHP pages like this: <?php goes at the top, ?> goes at the bottom, and all the HTML gets either print()ed or echo()ed out. Is that slower than having non-dynamic html outputted outside of <?php ?> tags? I can't seem to find any info about this.
Thanks!
--Mala
UPDATE: the consesus seems to be on doing it my old way being hard to read. This is not the case if you break your strings up line by line as in:
print("\n".
"first line goes here\n".
"second line goes here\n".
"third line");
etc. It actually makes it a lot easier to read than having html outside of php structures, as this way everything is properly indented. That being said, it involves a lot of string concatenation.
I'm not sure about speed, but it's typically best practice to separate dynamic elements and the display of them.
Check out a framework like CodeIgniter: This has a "controller" and a "model" that grab data, sort it or do whatever you like with it, and then feed it to a "view" (some sort of template).
This paradigm is called MVC, and is a really, really valuable thing to learn about. I've found its chief advantage to be easier-to-maintain code. I don't end up with a monster document that I have to re-learn each time I approach it.
Resources:
CodeIgniter
MVC
The difference in speed is probably negligible, however, when **print()**ing out all of your HTML with PHP, the code can get very ugly, and makes it much harder to read than if you just have plain HTML.
Edit: Also, if you're are **print()**ing out static HTML that doesn't change, really what is the point? It gives you no added benefit.
Pros
None that I can see
Cons
Code that is hard to read
One more step in processing for the PHP engine, which although probably not noticeable, it is an extra step.
The speed is negligible - trust me, this will not be your bottleneck.
Along with any other MVC framework, you might want to check out a simple templating system, such as Smarty, which separates your PHP logic from your HTML and also does caching.
I don't know if it's slower or faster, but (in my opinion) it makes the code a lot more difficult to understand. Which I guess is why I don't typically do it.
It is almost the same from a performance point of view.
I would set the focus on the readability of the code. If you have a performance problem, figure out the bottleneck and cache it.
Is that slower than having non-dynamic html outputted outside of <?php ?> tags?
Well yes, it is... marginally. But that's not really the issue: it's all about the readability.
this way everything is properly indented
Your example isn't indented at all, which is fairly typical for the print-heavy, PHP I've unfortunately had to maintain!
Try this approach to keeping good, consistent indentation:
<ul>
<?php
// block of arbitrary code blah blah
//
$conditions= get_conditions_from_request();
$isadmin= $user->privileges>=PRIV_ADMIN;
?>
<?php foreach (select_things($conditions) as $thing) { ?>
<li>
<strong><?php h($thing->title); ?></strong>
<?php if ($isadmin) { ?>
<a href="/editthing.php?id=<?php u($thing->id); ?> (Edit) </a>
<?php } ?>
<?php h($thing->description); ?>
</li>
<?php } ?>
</ul>
(This presumes a function h that calls echo htmlspecialchars and u that does echo htmlspecialchars urlencode. Getting this escaping stuff right is essential to having a secure site, and is something that's almost always wrong in print-based PHP, as it tends to use "blah $var blah"-style templating without any escaping at all.)
Maybe not the best practice, but I choose to mix and match print() statements. For large chunks of layout code, I don't use print(), but if I'm rendering a complex if/else or for/while block and I'd be exiting the PHP block every other word, then I'll print out the non-dynamic text with the dynamic text.
Performance is very negligible at best. You can create a page, and put a timer on it. (Here is a tutorial on creating a script timer)
Output the exact same data both ways, and measure it with as many samplings as you can get, this should roughly tell you which is faster. I'm guessing very close to the same.
I have seen a lot of these pages with PHP embedded inside HTML, and I don't like it. As Alex Mcp suggested you should be thinking about a MVC model.
The problem with scripts embedded into html is the flow control and logic aren't easy to read, and there are some wierd problems that occur here and there. The best solution for me is usually to use Smarty or the Zend Framework to create template pages and then swap the data that goes in and out. Much easier to manage in the long run.