Template-Based Web Development With patTemplate (part 1) - Hard Sell (
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patTemplate is a PHP-based template engine
designed, in the author's words, to "help you separate program logic or content
from layout". Developed by Stephan Schmidt, it is freely available for download
and is packaged as a single PHP class which can be easily included in your
application.
patTemplate uses templates to simplify maintenance of PHP
code, and to separate data from page elements. It assumes that a single Web
application is made up of many smaller pieces - it calls these parts "templates"
- and it provides an API to link templates together, and to fill them with
data.
In patTemplate lingo, a "template" is simply a text file, typically
containing both static elements (HTML code, ASCII text et al) and patTemplate
variables. When patTemplate parses a template file, it automatically replaces
the variables within it with their values (this is referred to as "variable
interpolation"). These values may be defined by the developer at run-time, and
may be either local to a particular template, or global across all the templates
within an application.
As you will see, patTemplate also makes it
possible to "nest" one template within another, adding a whole new level of
flexibility to this template-based method of doing things. By allowing you to
split up a user interface into multiple smaller parts, patTemplate adds
reusability to your Web application (a template can be used again and again,
even across different projects) and makes it easier to localize the impact of a
change.
As if all that wasn't enough, patTemplate also makes it possible
to hide or show individual sub-templates, to repeat templates as many times as
needed, to iteratively build templates, and to use conditional tests within a
template. Since it's not HTML-specific - your template can contain code in any
format you like - it can even generate output in ASCII, CSV or
XML.
Before proceeding further, you should visit the patTemplate home
page at
http://www.php-tools.de/ and
download a copy of the latest version (2.4 at the time of writing). The package
contains the main class file, documentation outlining the exposed methods and
variables, and some example scripts.
