Best templating engine for php

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November 17th, 2012, 10:10 PM

zxcvbnm

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Best templating engine for php

This is one of those topics that I see so many different opinions on!

I use Codeigniter now and I am doing a research which templating engine suits the best. I haven't found 2 post that have the same opinion! Some say smarty is gold some say stay away from it. Same with Rain tpl, twig,...

I was wondering if you could write your comments on this.

Thanks

November 18th, 2012, 07:44 AM

Jacques1

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Hi,

there is no "best template engine". Some are more user friendly than others, some are faster, some use less memory, some are simpler etc.

I'd go with one of the mainstream engines (Smarty, Twig, ...) that have been proven to work and then simply choose the one you like best. If performance is very important to you, you might also google for benchmarks.

November 18th, 2012, 06:44 PM

zxcvbnm

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Jacques1

Thanks I made up my mind. I am going to learn Smarty.
Benefits:
- It seems to be important to large companies in case I want to look for job in future,
- It is another skill,
- And it is always good to learn something new,
- It is well known ( as you mentioned),

Saying that I still think the messy code in inevitable.

PHP Code:


		
			
{foreach $foo as $bar}

  <a href="{$bar.zig}">{$bar.zag}</a>

  <a href="{$bar.zig2}">{$bar.zag2}</a>

  <a href="{$bar.zig3}">{$bar.zag3}</a>

{foreachelse}



//OR

{foreach $foo as $bar}

  {if $bar@iteration is div by 4}

    </tr><tr>

  {/if}

  <td>{$bar}</td>

{/foreach}

  There were no rows found.

{/foreach}

November 18th, 2012, 07:11 PM

Jacques1

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Quote:

Originally Posted by zxcvbnm

Thanks I made up my mind. I am going to learn Smarty.

Sounds good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zxcvbnm

Saying that I still think the messy code in inevitable.

Well, I don't find this example all that terrible. And you'll rarely need stuff like "... @iteration is div by ...", since the structure should already be given by the model.

But sure, you'll never be able to avoid "messy" templates completely. It simply comes with complexity.

November 20th, 2012, 04:07 AM

zxcvbnm

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Jacques1

Sounds good.

Well, I don't find this example all that terrible. And you'll rarely need stuff like "... @iteration is div by ...", since the structure should already be given by the model.
But sure, you'll never be able to avoid "messy" templates completely. It simply comes with complexity.

Jacques1! I got Smarty working. I don't like it at all! Now I see how much I like the idea of using php tags within html code! Maybe I am just new to this! This is strange that everyone uses template engines. I know we talked about this but I still think the messy code is inevitable and the benefits are nothing compared to the headache. Or maybe I am missing the whole point.

PHP Code:


		
			
if ( ! defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');

class Members_model extends CI_Model

    {

        function list_members()

            {

                $query = $this->db->query("SELECT * FROM members");

                return $query->result();

            }

    }

PHP Code:


		
			
public function list_members()

        {

            $this->load->model('members_model');

            $members = $this->members_model->list_members();

            $this->smarty->assign("members", $members);

            $this->smarty->view('index');

     }

Code:

{section name=co loop=$members}
 {$members[co]->email}<br />
{/section}

Last edited by zxcvbnm : November 20th, 2012 at 04:56 AM.

November 20th, 2012, 04:57 AM

Jacques1

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Um, you've used Smarty for two days, and you've already come to the conclusion that template engines in general are bad?

First of all, you've picked the most cumbersome solution. Simply make a foreach:

Code:

{foreach $members as $member}
	{$member->email}<br />
{/foreach}

Secondly, if you don't like Smarty, then simply try another engine. Wasn't that the whole point of this thread?

I mean, nobody forces you to use template engines. If you want to use the good old PHP tags, simply do it. But making a decision based on a quick look and "this looks strange" doesn't sound like a good idea.

November 20th, 2012, 05:33 PM

Nanomech

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To be honest, I'm using a template which I found from watching a couple of youtube videos. This guys setup works really really well with what I am doing. It's all about using one main index.php page to display all your HTML template pages. Such a neat system.

Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/user/betterphp
Browse through his videos and you will come across templates which he writes the code for in his videos. He explains things pretty well also.

Hope this helps.

Regards.

Best templating engine for php

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