Re: [PHP Template] Re: [PHP3] template engine example document

On Sun, 26 Mar 2000, Ron Chmara wrote:
> If I find the variables to send to the logic, do I win? :-)

Well, it's not a game of win and lose here.. :)
> 
> I suppose you could do it that way, or if the designer specifies iteration, they
> could write one include, and have the designer insert 5 includes.

Designers don't control iterations. Not at all.

> Here's a counter question. How would your templates allow them to, oh,
> print resuts 12345  as  3151245?

I don't quite understand this question. Perhaps, you could explain?

> Do they control *appearance*, or, as this debate  goes into syntax
> wars, do they control *syntax* of those variables?

Syntax of the variables? I fear that I fail to grasp your meaning.

> <? include "dbresultcounter.inc" ?><---Result counter for db work, uses
> the count function--->
> There were a total of <? echo $resultcount ?> document(s) found.
> OR
> <? echo $standardhitext ?> <!---This allows for logic to control the
> text varying between was/were hit/hits --->

Assuming the programmer knows ahead of time that the designer needs
$standardhittext. Otherwise, the designer needs to come back to the
programmer and say, "Give me this variable".

> Does your counter-controlled-by-designer-template allow them to
> specify the numbering style? (one, two,1,2,I,II,)?

No, that would need to be done from a PHP script. Because those numbers
are part of the content which the designer does not control. The
designer controls the _presentation_ of that, whether those numbers are
in a table cell or bolded or something else.

> much the same thing. You're trying to jumpstart it by giving them
> pre-defined "functions" that they can wrap in HTML (the loop seems
> to be the most common one), but the hit you're taking is in evil
> Grep madness, to get the variable tags.

Grep? We're not doing any grep.

> Pass the html tags to the general logic, and be done with it. By the time
> you've built all the logic, you have the function, only you don't have
> *all the variables*. By the time you have all the functions available
> in HTML coded into the PHP template-language-parser (<B>, <STRONG>,
> <EMP> to pull into the template parser, you're still lacking the
> _functions_ that designers will want the code to generate, so put
> the tag control back into their hands, and set coders to work on
> the functions themselves.

This is still not clear to me....

> Maybe you already have the following document: For each logic
> block, what are the designer vars, and what are the logic vars?
> Can design vars be put into the logic by the designer? Yes? Then
> how? By a new syntax for a $var? :-)

..as is this. Design vars put into the logic?

> As you make the templates more complex, you rebuild PHP code to handle
> each exception.  By focusing on what set of exceptions (coding in loops),
> you're missing the very reason PHP got so big... because, well, when your
> designer says "now, this link makes a PDF", or "this link searches
> LDAP" you now have to again build everything _twice_. Once in PHP,
> and once in your new syntax, to allow the templates to use a new way
> of passing your vars.

Designer is not going to say "this link makes PDF". That's content
again, which is programmer's responsibility.

> Don't rebuild lots of templates, or recode lots of pages... when you want
> to change the color of all the site text (except for what they've overridden
> locally), you change one *variable*. Not 30 templates, one, single, variable...

And we do that, by changing one setting in the config file that gets
loaded by the templates.

> Make an include with all the required components. Pass standard
> variable names. $searchstring gets used an awful lot. :-) Need custom
> variables for a section? Make one include, with all the variables
> for a given section.  Let the designers control the page vars, with the
> coders controlling the logic vars. When you need to pass vars between
> the two, do it in a standard manner.

This bit about "passing the vars between the two" is another thing you
might need to explain.

-Andrei

Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today.  Teach a man to use
the Net and he won't bother you for weeks.
                                           -Author unknown