How could I improve this template system?
At the moment, I have a base HTML template file. When ever I want to make a new page, I copy the template and place some require_once statements in between specific tags. I was wondering if there's a better way that would make it unnecessary to copy the template each time. Here's a typical example:
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/second.css" />
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"
src="js/validation_functions.js"></script>
<title>Order a Ticket for the ball</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="banner">St. Tom's Ambulance Ball</div>
<!-- START[container] -->
<!-- "body" -->
<div id="container">
<!-- START[header] -->
<div id="header">
<!-- header -->
<div id="header_text">introduction</div>
<div id="header_cell2">the process</div>
<div id="header_cell3">start</div>
</div>
<!-- END[header -->
<!-- START[content] -->
<!-- "other container" -->
<div id="content">
<!-- START[form] -->
<div id="form">
<?php
require_once(realpath($config["directories"]["views"]."/index.form.view.php"));
?>
</div>
<!-- END[form] -->
<!-- START[data] -->
<!-- "main content" -->
<div id="data">
<?php
require_once(realpath($config["directories"]["views"]."/index.data.view.php"));
?>
</div>
<!-- END[data] -->
<!-- START[side] -->
<div id="side">
<?php
require_once(realpath($config["directories"]["views"]."/index.side.view.php"));
?>
</div>
<!-- END[side] -->
</div>
<!-- END[content] -->
<!-- START[footer] -->
<div id="footer">
<!-- footer -->
<div id="footer_text">
<ul>
<li><a href="index.php">home</a></li>
<li><a href="">partners</a></li>
<li><a href="">projects</a></li>
<li><a href="">contact us</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div id="footer_cell2"> </div>
<div id="footer_cell3"> </div>
</div>
<!-- END[footer] -->
</div>
<!-- END[container] -->
</body>
</html>
EDIT: I have taken note of your suggestions to use GET. The new idea is to have each request url formed as index.php?page=page_name. This request would then be dealt with by a main controller which then sets the variables of the template based on the value of $_GET['page']. For this, the template will now be:
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/second.css" />
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"
src="js/validation_functions.js"></script>
<title><?php h($title) ?></title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="banner">St. Tom's Ambulance Ball</div>
<!-- START[container] -->
<!-- "body" -->
<div id="container">
<!-- START[header] -->
<div id="header">
开发者_JS百科 <!-- header -->
<div id="header_text"><?php h($header_1) ?></div>
<div id="header_cell2"><?php h($header_2) ?></div>
<div id="header_cell3"><?php h($header_3) ?></div>
</div>
<!-- END[header -->
<!-- START[content] -->
<!-- "other container" -->
<div id="content">
<!-- START[form] -->
<div id="form">
<?php
require_once(realpath($view_1));
?>
</div>
<!-- END[form] -->
<!-- START[data] -->
<!-- "main content" -->
<div id="data">
<?php
require_once(realpath($view_2));
?>
</div>
<!-- END[data] -->
<!-- START[side] -->
<div id="side">
<?php
require_once(realpath($view_3));
?>
</div>
<!-- END[side] -->
</div>
<!-- END[content] -->
<!-- START[footer] -->
<div id="footer">
<!-- footer -->
<div id="footer_text">
<ul>
<li><a href="index.php">home</a></li>
<li><a href="">partners</a></li>
<li><a href="">projects</a></li>
<li><a href="">contact us</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div id="footer_cell2"> </div>
<div id="footer_cell3"> </div>
</div>
<!-- END[footer] -->
</div>
<!-- END[container] -->
</body>
</html>
Note: h() is a function that first of all removes all undesired entity tags before echoing a string.
On a related note, at the top of each page I have some controller files which are included with require_once. I was wondering if it would be possible to implement a function that simply includes files based on a specific input string (name of the functionality/page) i.e "index" in this way:
function include_controller($page){
switch($page){
case "index":
require_once(realpath($config["directories"]["controllers"]."/index_.php"));
break;
case "checkout":
require_once(realpath($config["directories"]["controllers"]."/checkout_.php"));
break;
default:
break;
}
}
Instead of hard coding the includes into each file, you could have a controller file in which you pass the page to be displayed through a $_GET variable. The controller then handles the logic and includes the appropriate page or pages. This is the way a lot of MVC frameworks do it.
Edit: To answer your second question, instead of using a switch, you could just check to make sure the file exists. If it does, include that file, otherwise output an error ("Page doesn't exists" or something similar).
function include_controller($page){
if (file_exists($config["directories"]["controllers"]."/$page_.php")) {
// page exists, include it
require_once($config["directories"]["controllers"]."/$page_.php"));
} else {
// page not found
}
}
Obviously you should probably make the function a little more robust and probably limit the files that will be included to a certain directory or something. Also make sure you properly filter the $page variable so users aren't able to access any file.
Keep this one file as your template file. Then for all the functionality in your site always hit this file. Lets sat this file is index.php. So all functionality requests go to index.php. But with different parameters so for functionality A.
index.php?function=a For functionality b
index.php?function=b
you can add more parameters also.
Now on the basis of a,b and the set of parameters see what files you want to include as require once.
Like the others already said, it would be better to use some kind of MVC framework. Or at least use a template engine (e.g. Smarty). Your example is ok though, for the 90ies :)
You can get by with one template if you choose a different way of specifying what page is being requested, such as using a GET variable. You can load the pages in a database and specify each of the included pieces, then have one php 'template engine' that loads the requested page from the database and outputs the template with the right includes.
If your server supports it, you can references to things you want to include on all pages in .htaccess:
php_value auto_prepend_file "header.php"
php_value auto_append_file "footer.php"
(Found this on codingforums.com)
加载中,请稍侯......
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