advanced php templating using str_replace arrays

Question

I created some templating system to help me output database items in a skinnable way. It works like this:

$tpl = "<html>
<body>
<div><span class="item">Favourite food:</span><span class="content">{item1}</span></div>
<div><span class="item">Hobby:</span><span class="content">{item2}</span></div>
<div><span class="item">Allergies:</span><span class="content">{item3}</span></div>
// up to 500 more lines like this
</body>
</html>";

$output = str_replace( 
array('{item1}','{item2}','{item3}') ) , 
array($database['item1'],$database['item2'],$database['item3']) , 
$tpl );

echo $output;

Now I the problem is: Not every database item has content necessarily - so, currently I get output like this

Favourite food: Banana Hobby: {item2} Allergies: Apple

Is there any way to use this kind system and to leave out the lines that don't have a database entry? The output should then be like this:

Favourite food: Banana Allergies: Apple

How could I achieve this?

UPDATE: The Description text may vary, as well, therefore I updated the example code. And I would like to avoid foreach or for-loops because then the templating itself is broken. I want to be able to insert random HTML. Using smarty or another templating system is not feasible at this moment. But I could provide a third array with descriptions.

UPDATE 2: I thought that maybe a preg_replace on $output might do the trick? so this would mean "IF there is a html tag that contains {} brackets somewhere in it on $output THEN erase the whole tag from to (I updated my code accordingly) what do you think? do you know any reg_expression that could do this?

but how can I incorporate this in the array so that I can use one string as a template ($tpl)? — cukabeka
– cukabeka, Commented Nov 20, 2012 at 20:20
Have you considered using a 'real' template Engine? Something like: smarty.net (Disclaimer: I am not affiliated to Smarty) — Daan Timmer
– Daan Timmer, Commented Nov 20, 2012 at 20:22
yes, finally, I used edenPHP for my project, they have quite a good template system available. — cukabeka
– cukabeka, Commented Oct 8, 2013 at 21:54

Albz · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-21 10:11:03Z

2

This code will work:

<?php

$database = array(
"item1" => "banana",
"item2" => "apple",
"item3" => "cherry",
);

$output = '<html>
<body>';

for($i=1;$i<500;$i++) //change 500 with the desired number or setup a dynamic variable
{
    if(isset($database['item'.$i])) //if the current item is set
    {
$output .= '<span class="item">Description for item '.$i.': </span><span class="content">'.$database['item'.$i].'</span>'; //append to $output
$output .= '<br />'; //Here I add a line break, remove if you don't want
    }
}
$output .= '</body></html>';

echo $output;

?>

You'll see that if an item is not present in the $database array, it won't be printed out. Of course you can remove the $database array at the beginning of the code (here use for test purposes) and use your own generated $database array.

In your particular case: if you want to develop your own template engine, you could use special strings (that you invent) in the template (e.g. {--ITEMS--}) and then process those strings in a second PHP file that reads the template, finds the strings and replaces them with some output. To do this the main point you are missing in the code you posted here is the "construction" of the output that will replace your fixed strings in the template. You can construct the output by processing your database and appending the results ( using .= ) to a variable that just at the end is printed out or can be used to replace your fixed string.

edited Nov 21, 2012 at 10:11

answered Nov 20, 2012 at 21:02

Albz

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2 Comments

cukabeka Over a year ago

hey albz! thanks, your approach got me to the idea of regular expressions on the resulting output. do you think there's an expression for that?

Albz Over a year ago

Sure, in principle you can run regexps through the template and replace the special strings with the resulting output. This would imply loading the entire template into a variable (or line by line),which is probably not the most optimized choice. However this may work for you (an HTML template is usually a few KB: it shouldn't slow down your PHP application so much,unless you have thousands of user at the same time). You could check out this free script as an example: podcastgen.sf.net (in the /themes folder you'll find the templates,in /core/themes.php you'll see how they are replaced)

Cups · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-21 22:37:21Z

1

I'd favour maintaining an array of the values you do want (could come from a db too) and give that the control over whether to display your db results (shown as $row here). That way you can also combine the label to be shown on finding a match

$row= array(
"item1" => "banana",
"item2" => "apple",
"item3" => "cherry",
);

$items = array(
'item1'=>'Favourite Food', 
'item2'=>'Hobbies:',
'item3'=> 'Allergies'
);

foreach($items as $k=>$item){

if (isset($row[$k]) {
// concat a variable
$html .= $item . ' ' . $row[$k] . '<br />';
}


}

echo $html; // or whatever

Use in conjunction with the other ideas shown in replies.

answered Nov 21, 2012 at 22:37

Cups

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Comments

Zack Tanner · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-20 20:19:37Z

0

Have you looked into PHP Isset? http://php.net/manual/en/function.isset.php or Empty? http://php.net/manual/en/function.empty.php

answered Nov 20, 2012 at 20:19

Zack Tanner

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Comments

Felix Guo · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-20 20:20:44Z

0

Use this code:

$tpl = "<html><body>";
for($i=1;$i<500;$i++)
{
    if(isset($database['item'.$i]))
    {
    $tpl = $tpl.'<span class="item">Description for item '.$i.':</span><span class="content">{item'.$i.'}</span>';
    }
}    
$tpl = $tpl."</body></html>";

echo str_replace( 
array('{item1}','{item2}','{item3}') ) , 
array($database['item1'],$database['item2'],$database['item3']) , 
$tpl );

answered Nov 20, 2012 at 20:20

Felix Guo

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Comments

Thomas · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-20 22:02:17Z

0

I would actually recommend using a foreach loop on the db

$tpl = '';
foreach($database as $itemName => $value)
{
$tpl .= '<span class="item">Description for item '.$i.':</span><span class="content">{item'.$i.'}</span>';
}

Might need to adapt it, but should be good otherwise

answered Nov 20, 2012 at 22:02

Thomas

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