PHP string templating

Question

does anybody of you know about a good way of building string templates, that can be filled with corresponding data afterwords? It's for a communication system.

So a desired output could look like:

Hello Batman, how are you doing? Your friends Superman, Catwoman and Spiderman are already using our service. Would you like to give our service a try?

The actual data should be pulled from the database and so there needs to be a general way of processing something like this:

Hello {Username}, how are you doing? {If:HasFriendsWhoUseTheService}Your friends {ListFriends} are already using our service.{EndIf} Would you like to give our service a try?

So that means in case the user doesn't have friends who are using the system, the middle sentence shouldn't be printed.

I've just built a small system that is capable of replacing fields like {username} or {ListFriends} appropriately, but then I recognized, that there also should be some if statements.

Does anybody know a library or something similar that supports such stuff? Maybe there is also more to consider, for a maximum of flexibility.

Do you need it for text only or HTML?

Ja͢ck
– Ja͢ck

2013-01-15 10:02:31 +00:00
Commented Jan 15, 2013 at 10:02 — Ja͢ck
– Ja͢ck, Commented Jan 15, 2013 at 10:02

Jon · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-15 10:02:50Z

1

If the templates are only going to be edited by trusted people, then you should simply use PHP itself:

Hello <?php echo $Username;?>, how are you doing?
<?php if ($ListFriends) : ?>
Your friends <?php echo $ListFriends;?> are already using our service.
<?php endif; ?>
Would you like to give our service a try?

If it's not acceptable to allow the template authors full programming capabilities then you can look into a template engine like Smarty (crash course here).

answered Jan 15, 2013 at 10:02

Jon

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Hieu Le · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-15 10:09:37Z

0

Build a custom parser. You can view a BBCode parser in this link as an example http://forrst.com/posts/Simple_PHP_BBCode_Parser-N0z As I understood, you string template will works with tags like {Username}, {if:Condition}Content{/endif}, ... which is the same as what BBCode do.

answered Jan 15, 2013 at 10:09

Hieu Le

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amannn · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-18 09:07:10Z

0

Thanks for the helpful answers!

I had a talk with the involved managers and had the requirements refined, to make it easier. So i ended up providing only simple fields like {Username} or {Address}, since there is no easy way to create a universal system.

Thanks anyway for your help!

answered Jan 18, 2013 at 9:07

amannn

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