Template framework for static websites

First, we write template files for all common elements of the page and the overall layout of the page as before; then delete the common parts from all pages, leaving only the page content; next, in Add three lines of PHP code to each page, as follows:




< ;?php require('prepend.php'); ?>

Hello

Welcome

Hope you like this website

?>

This method basically solves the various problems mentioned earlier. There are only three lines of PHP code in the file now, and none of them directly refer to the template, so the possibility of changing this code is extremely slim. In addition, since the HTML content is outside the PHP markup, there is no problem with handling special characters. We can easily add these three lines of PHP code to all static HTML pages.

The require function introduces a PHP file that contains all the necessary template-related PHP code. The pageStart function sets the template object and page title, and the pageFinish function parses the template and generates the result and sends it to the browser.

How is this achieved? Why is the HTML in the file not sent to the browser until the pageFinish function is called? The answer lies in a new feature of PHP 4, which allows the content output to the browser to be intercepted into a buffer. Let's take a look at the specific code of prepend.php:


require('class.FastTemplate.php');

function pageStart($title = '') {
GLOBAL $tpl;
$tpl = new FastTemplate('.');
$tpl->define( array( 'main' => 'main.htm',
'header' => 'header.htm',
'leftnav'=> 'leftnav.htm' ) );
$tpl->assign('TITLE', $title);
ob_start();
}

function pageFinish() {
GLOBAL $tpl;
$content = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
$ tpl->assign('CONTENT', $content);
$tpl->parse('HEADER', 'header');
$tpl->parse('LEFTNAV', 'leftnav' );
$tpl->parse('MAIN', 'main');
$tpl->FastPrint('MAIN');
}

?>