Some argue that getting your templates from a database might slow down your site, as well as adding the overhead of having to open a database connection. However, if you're using a PHP/MySQL driven site, you probably already have a open database link, so a few extra queries won't slow down your small site much.

This tutorial will consist of two files, template.php and index.php. The first will have just have a few common functions (we could include these in index.php, but I prefer to separate function definitions from normal code). And the latter file, index.php, will connect to the database, and display the templates, amongst other things.

When the code is finished, I should be able to have a page like this on my site:

<?php

// Simple Templating Engine
// using a database tutorial.
// Written by Matt Eunson

// Define database variables - you have to change these
$Server = "localhost";
$Username = "me";
$Pass = "****";
$Database = "template";

// Now connect to the database
mysql_connect($Server, $Username, $Pass) or die("Couldn't connect to database.");
mysql_selectdb($Database) or die("Couldn't select database: $Database");

// Include the template functions
include_once "template.php";

// Start our page
$Title = "Simple Template Engine using a Database";
pageHeader($Title);

// Some content here...
echo "Welcome to my site.";

// And close the page
pageFooter();

?>

Ok, now we know what we want, let's get this show on the road!