A Complete List of PHP Template Engines?

**markl999** · Oct 16, 2003 20:40

I tried this a while back and must say i liked it. It was very functional even before the first main release.
And if the tutor page comes up blank it's because you need to have Sablotron installed/available, it caught me out. I shouldv'e read the docs more thoroughly

**tezza** · Oct 16, 2003 21:11

Originally Posted by markl999

I tried this a while back and must say i liked it. It was very functional even before the first main release.
And if the tutor page comes up blank it's because you need to have Sablotron installed/available, it caught me out. I shouldv'e read the docs more thoroughly

Sorry about the sablotron thing. I really wanted the tutorials to work using the DOMXML's XSLT but I had some issues (can't remember at this moment). I was planning on looking into the problem before a stable release is issued. In the mean time, Sablotron (XSLT) will remain a requirement -- at least for the tutorials anyway.

The fact that a blank page is thrown is very bad. There should at least be some sort of message saying you are trying to use sablotron but you don't have it. I will look into that.

I'm keen to iron out problems so I appreciate the feedback.

Thanks.

**Dr Livingston** · Oct 17, 2003 05:07

I had a feeling I'd have to use Sablotron... Another extension installation is on the agenda again

It's a shame though that DOMXML has issues with XSL-T. Very disappointing since when you actually look at it, there is very little you can really do with XML without an XSL stylesheet.

...

**bobfrank** · Oct 31, 2003 07:15

Another one:

P.E.T. Processor Engine for Templates
http://php-pet.sourceforge.net/english_index.html

**Mike Borozdin** · Nov 1, 2003 13:56

Could anybody stick this thread?

**tezza** · Nov 2, 2003 17:09

Originally Posted by Mike Borozdin

Could anybody stick this thread?

as soon as PHP runs out of templating systems

why? Is it bothering you?

**Macroit** · Nov 11, 2003 21:43

**seratonin** · Dec 11, 2003 20:14

What about the idea of using two inputs to the XSL Transform:

1. XHTML file with custom tags for the page designer.
2. XML (dynamically generated or otherwise)

This way you get the best of both worlds.

See:

"XSLT Designer Tags":
http://xml.grumpykitty.biz/

"Style-free XSLT Style Sheets":
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2000/07/26/xslt/xsltstyle.html

"Template Languages in XSLT":
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/03/27/templatexslt.html

"Creating Truly Skinnable Web Sites":
http://code.box.sk/newsread.php?newsid=198

Regards,

JT

**seratonin** · Dec 11, 2003 20:44

Another Interesting Article on Templates:

http://www.cs.usfca.edu/~parrt/papers/mvc.templates.pdf

Here is an article I like about using a SAX parser and a stack to invoke callbacks. One could use an XHTML file with XML-compliant tags as input to the parser and the callbacks "fill-in" the dynamic areas of the page. In fact, I created the following tags for it:

<template:transform xml="data.xml" xsl="style.xsl"/>
<template:include file="somefile.php" eval="true"/>

I allowed for transformations of dynamically generated XML and static XML files.

You could even put XML inline as in this scenario:

<template:transform xsl="style.xsl">
<include file="generateCustomerList.php" eval="true"/>
</template:transform>

or even static (if you wanted):

<template:transform xsl="style.xsl">
<customer>
<firstName>John</firstName>
<lastName>Timm</lastName>
</customer>
</template:transform>

So this solution allows for XML-compliant templates. I was thinking of adding support for loops and logic, but this can all be achieved with the above two tags. It is kind of a hybrid solution.

"XMLTemplate (in Python) by Patrick Lioi":
http://patrick.lioi.net/archive/2003/09/13/162936

"Dynamic XML Conversion Using the SAX Parser and a Stack":
http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/sc...r20030325.php3

Regards,

JT

**KSA** · Jan 22, 2004 13:03

4image Template Engine
http://www.4homepages.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9907

**mediatech** · Jan 23, 2004 02:19

You can download an easy to customize HTML Typo3 Template here

Typoscript vs XSLT

TYPO3 also supports the =1266&cHash=7ce2d478e4]Smarty Template Engine

**sarmadys** · Feb 2, 2004 10:04

Sorry to ask here.

Are we allowed to use Pear ones in our commercial applications?

Which of these have better licenses and less trouble if we want to use them in a commercial app?

Mac

**michael301080** · Feb 16, 2004 17:24

Hi all,

I've read through the most of these posts in this thread. To my disappointment, I only see typo3 mentioned till on the last page.
I think there is hardly anything more user friendly than adding content to a typo3 site.
I'm actually looking for tezza's opinion on this. Are there any (browser based) tools that can edit the XSLT doc and show the resulting pages (edited) on the fly? In typo3, users can edit a sites content and style in the backend of the site.
I know typo3 is a 'CMS', but it's so flexible and powerfull that it can incorporate any other application.
Have a look at the repository for popular extensions to see some of the components / extensions available to typo3.
When these extensions are build using good MVC techniques, then including them into the site is easy.

Just 0.02 EUR.

**tezza** · Feb 23, 2004 22:09

Originally Posted by michael301080

I'm actually looking for tezza's opinion on this. Are there any (browser based) tools that can edit the XSLT doc and show the resulting pages (edited) on the fly?

yup. free too.
http://www.altova.com/products_doc.html

once the developer sets this up, the user is not even aware of the fact that there is XSLT in the background - to them it's just another word processor document with a template applied.

I haven't been researching this stuff for a long time now but I wouldn't be surprised if there are similar solutions out there. And since XSLT/XML is a standard, you can expect support to keep growing for a very long time to come.

Here's a very simple formula which sums up my view
standards based [template] system = has a future
non-standard [template] system = waste of time.

Web standards have, after many years, become very strong and as a result, are well supported by technology implementations.

There are no more excuses.

**michael301080** · Feb 25, 2004 03:01

Originally Posted by tezza

yup. free too.
http://www.altova.com/products_doc.html

There are no more excuses.

Thanks for your reply.
Too bad they only have versions for that other OS. (the same with the Browser Edition of this product, which only works in IE as an .OCX (ActiveX)) (and I know that the RTE or rich text editor of Typo3 only works in IE as well)

I guess I'm still not seeing the big picture on the use of XSLT. How does an end-user build up a document for use in HTML and WAP environments at the same time? Does one create a rich or big document for Web deployment and then include tags in it that identify parts that should not be put in in a Wap environment? How is this usually done?

Also when you create a page to fit in a website, does this creation reflect itself in other documents or document-parts? e.g. When a breadcrumb path is on your website, is it automatically created when you browse to your newly created page. The same thing when you have a site-map document in your website, is the newly created page put in there automatically?

How does XSLT technology help you with that? I'm probably thinking to much in terms of website than in terms of services.

**tezza** · Mar 23, 2004 00:12

Originally Posted by michael301080

Thanks for your reply.
Too bad they only have versions for that other OS. (the same with the Browser Edition of this product, which only works in IE as an .OCX (ActiveX)) (and I know that the RTE or rich text editor of Typo3 only works in IE as well)

Authentic is NOT a rich text editor.

It is an XML document editor supporting real-time transformation preview.

THERE IS NO RICH TEXT

Originally Posted by michael301080

I guess I'm still not seeing the big picture on the use of XSLT. How does an end-user build up a document for use in HTML and WAP environments at the same time? Does one create a rich or big document for Web deployment and then include tags in it that identify parts that should not be put in in a Wap environment? How is this usually done?

The nice thing about building up a content document for output to multiple formats is that you need only generate minimal content. YOU DO NOT INCLUDE ANYTHING ABOUT DISPLAY SEMANTICS in your XML content doc.

ie.

Lets say you built a web page which listed the latest news.

you XML might look like this

[xml]
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<n:news xmlns:n="my.news.namespace" xmlns="blah blah XHTML ns">
<n:item pkey_id="1234" title="apples and oranges">
<b>people</b> protested outside the <i>commission for standards
implementation</i> today. They complained that the standards formulation
process was not consultative enough...
</n:item>
</n:news>
[/xml]

All the static, unchanging HTML that makes up the rest of your page is stored in the XSLT template dedicated to the HTML site. If you output to wap, then you have a separate template dedicated to wap which stored the associated baggage.

Originally Posted by michael301080

Also when you create a page to fit in a website, does this creation reflect itself in other documents or document-parts? e.g. When a breadcrumb path is on your website, is it automatically created when you browse to your newly created page. The same thing when you have a site-map document in your website, is the newly created page put in there automatically?

not sure what you mean.

**michael301080** · Mar 23, 2004 06:52

I think I'm getting to the bigger picture of why one would want to use XSLT. (thanks for explaning.)

Originally Posted by tezza

All the static, unchanging HTML that makes up the rest of your page is stored in the XSLT template dedicated to the HTML site. If you output to wap, then you have a separate template dedicated to wap which stored the associated baggage.

not sure what you mean.

I was aiming at dynamic content creation in my previous post. Let's take the example of the sitemap.
In the world of XSLT, you would have a sitemap with the listing and hierarchy of pages in XML and the make-up for this to be a web-page or a wap-document in XSLT.

In a system like Typo3, (and other CMS'es) this sitemap (XML-content) would be generated automatically. ie. when a page is added to a website, the sitemap is updated automatically reflecting that change.

How do you do this in a XML - XSLT world? do you have a php script to create the sitemap- XML?
How do you work with web-applications where you have lots of different steps? Have you incorporated XSLT in web-apps before? XSLT would actually enable the same web-app to be used by Web and WAP simultaniously. Is my view on this correct?

**tezza** · Mar 23, 2004 08:40

Well as long as the CMS is producing it in XML format, then the produced file can be readily transformed with XSLT for whatever purpose - be it a navigation system, or a HTML site map. As long as Typo3 is using the XML standard, then it can happily co-exist with XSLT.

If every web app used XML, then we would all benefit. That's because XML is a stanadard.

If you wanted to convert one XML vocabulary to another XML vocabulary, you use XSLT for the job. it is more than just a standard for templates.

**Widow Maker** · Mar 23, 2004 14:05

And since XSLT/XML is a standard, you can expect support to keep growing for a very long time to come.

And on the basis of PHP, the future is almost certainly a bright future once PHP v5 has an installed user base.

As D:REAM would say, 'things can only get better'

**mefistulo** · Apr 1, 2004 02:19

a new simple Syntax Template

http://php-pet.sourceforge.net/

**kuato** · Apr 1, 2004 03:12

You know, it's funny that after working with Smarty and phpbb templates for so long that I find myself more and more just using PHP as a template engine for personal projects. It's great for just putting together a small project where you don't want to mess with a template system. I'm so used to it now that it makes more sense to me to read the PHP embedded in the HTML. Is this really that hard to read and maintain somthing like this?

PHP Code:


<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" class="newslist">

  <tr>

    <th colspan="3">News Listing</th>

  </tr>

  <tr>

    <td width="60%" class="row2"><b>Title</b></td>

    <td class="row2"><b>Date</b></td>

    <td class="row2"><b>Author</b></td>

  </tr>

  <?php

  foreach( $tpldata['client'] as $key => $value )

  {

  ?>

  <tr>

    <?php

    $url = '<a href="acme_client.php?method=news.getNewsItem&amp;id='. $value['news_id'] . '">' . $value['news_title']. '</a>';

    $date = $value['news_date'];

    ?>

    <td width="60%" class="row1">

        <?php echo "$url"; ?>

    </td>

    <td class="row1 gensmall">

        <?php echo "$date->year/$date->month/$date->day"; ?>

    </td>

    <td class="row1 gensmall">

        <?php echo $value['news_author']; ?>

    </td>

  </tr>

  </tr>

  <?php

  }

  ?>

</table>

The more I use it the more I like it.

**jaykali** · Apr 1, 2004 23:35

Maybe this is a dumb question:
Are there templates that can survive XHTML syntax checker...things?
I'm not that bright but it seems HTMLTidy & programs like that have problems with attribute values, namely that silly IMG tag which is almost always built using dynamic attributes.
Ex.: <IMG src="{template}">
I'm new to this so excuse my ignorance
-Jay

**Dnyarri** · Apr 3, 2004 21:54

Is there anything wrong with just using an include() and a php echo? I've found that to be remarkably useful without having to deal with another 3rd party licensing issue.

**Jeff PI** · Apr 26, 2004 18:43

I'm looking at using a template system on a commercial code I have written which at the moment keeps all HTML in the PHP files, it has been fine so far and I have had no need to use templates due to plenty of commenting within the script, but now due to piracy of the script I am forced to encrypt it.. thus needing a template system to keep it customizable.

Sorry to ask here.

Are we allowed to use Pear ones in our commercial applications?

Which of these have better licenses and less trouble if we want to use them in a commercial app?

Mac

Hmm, I am in the same situation and beg to ask the same question. I know from experience in purchasing of software that was part GPL (but sold as commercial) that GPL licensing is a very slippery slope to walk.

I imagine that you could keep the software commercial, you will have to keep the template class source code open to your customers intact with its full GPL license (eg you could not encrypt it), but your commercial code should still be fine to encrypt as you are only passing the needed variables in to a class.

I am trying the following, as I have been told:

"I would strongly suggest you contact the author of any third party code before doing so... many will let you use the code if you adhere to certain rules that they may place, and probably sell you a commercial license or ask for a donation of sorts."

Anybody tried this? had any luck??

Failing that, (and I may have to do the same after I do a bit of research on use of 3rd party code in commercial soft..) it may mean writing my own.

**Jeff PI** · Apr 26, 2004 19:13

Quote from the Smarty Web site

Q: Can I create a proprietary software, and sell it with Smarty?
A: Yes, you can. Smarty is licensed under the [LGPL] and distributing an unmodified smarty source as part of a commercial product is just fine.

A: As far as I know the GPL licence doesn't allow any work using a GPL software in any way different by mere aggregation to be released with a licence different from GPL. For this reason LGPL licence was created. LGPL allows programs using or linking to a library to be released with a different licence.

So, any template system that is under the LGPL licence is allowed to be used with a commercial licence as long as the source code is readily available with the copyright notice intact

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