A simple PHP template engine that aims for PHP do most of the logic(even if some logic is supported in the engine) and then append it to the HTML in the template file. It is set to solve the problem of mixing too much logic into the template file itself and by that loosing some control over where the logic happens. Some of the syntax is also unique, and the engine itself is very lightweight. You also get a bit more control over the data that is passed down to the template, and the code is easier to manage and to track.
As a backend developer, I want to do most of the logic in PHP, and when to seperate HTML out from the code, I usually need a simple variable to value replacement tool. In its simplest form, its just a str_replace, but soon you find that you need something a little bit more powerfull, although still simple. PHPlater is aimed to solve this, that most of the values and logic should still be done in pure PHP, but then in order for the view to be as much pure HTML as possible to introduce a simple syntax for the most common operations. So, in a nutshell, PHPlater gives you variables with filters, lists and conditionals, with the simplicity of the syntax in mind as well as ease of use without any other dependencies. Every coder is different, and this was made to solve my way of doing it. Maybe there are someone else that finds it attractive too?
PHP 8.0 or higher is needed for this class to work.
Use the package manager composer to install PHPlater.
composer require phplater/phplater$phplater = new PHPlater();
$phplater->setPlate('hello', 'world!');
echo $phplater->render('Hello {{hello}}');Hello world!Some more examples are available under /examples and /tests
<div>
One: {{ one }}<br />
Two: {{ two.getTwo }}<br />
Three: {{ assoc.three }}<br />
Four: {{ assoc.4 }}<br />
Five: {{ assoc.5.0 }}<br />
Six: {{ assoc.six.0 }}<br />
Seven: {{ seven_obj.returnArray.seven }}
</div>class Test {
function getTwo() {
return 'Kaksi';
}
public function returnArray() {
return ['seven' => 'Seitsemän'];
}
}
$phplater = new PHPlater();
$phplater->setPlates([
'one' => 'Yksi',
'two' => new Test(),
'assoc' => [
'three' => 'Kolme',
4 => 'Neljä',
5 => ['Viisi'],
'six' => ['Kuusi']
],
'seven_obj' => new Test()
]);
echo $phplater->render('template.tpl');<div>
One: Yksi<br />
Two: Kaksi<br />
Three: Kolme<br />
Four: Neljä<br />
Five: Viisi<br />
Six: Kuusi<br />
Seven: Seitsemän
</div>In order to ease the looping a array of similar values, it can be sent inn and iterated over on the same template
$phplater = new PHPlater();
$phplater->setMany(true)->setPlates([
['value' => ['this']],
['value' => ['is']],
['value' => ['ok']]
]);
echo '<ul>'.$phplater->render('<li>{{ value.0 }}</li>').'</ul>';<ul><li>this</li><li>is</li><li>ok</li></ul>There is also a syntax for doing a foreach inside the template using tags and a placeholder without the many method
$phplater = new PHPlater();
$phplater->setPlates([
'list' => [
['value' => ['this']],
['value' => ['is']],
['value' => ['ok']]
]
]);
echo $phplater->render('<ul>[[<li>{{ list..value.0 }}</li>]]</ul>');<ul><li>this</li><li>is</li><li>ok</li></ul>Filters gets inspiration from Twig and and come after | tag with arguments to the method inspired by Latte
$phplater = new PHPlater();
$phplater->setFilter('uppercase', 'mb_strtoupper');
$phplater->setFilter('add_ok', function (string $data, string $ok = '') {
return $data . ' is '.$ok;
});
$phplater->setPlate('string', 'test');
echo $phplater->render('<b>This {{string|add_ok:ok|uppercase}}</b>');<b>This TEST IS OK</b>The conditional evaluates one or two variables, and return either a true value or a false value. These must have a space before and after the operator and the syntax is as follows.
$phplater = new PHPlater();
$phplater->setPlates([
'arr' => ['check', 'check', 'true', 'false']
]);
echo $phplater->render('(( {{ arr.0 }} == {{ arr.1 }} ?? <b>{{ arr.2 }}</b> :: {{ arr.3 }} ))');<b>true</b>These are the supported comparison operations
| Operator | Description |
|---|---|
| == | Equal |
| != | Not equal |
| !== | Strict not equal |
| === | Strict equal |
| >= | Greater than or equal |
| <= | Less than or equal |
| > | Greater than |
| < | Less than |
| <> | Not equal |
| <=> | Spaceship operator |
| % | Modulo, reminder (0 is falsy) |
| && | And |
| and | And |
| || | Or |
| or | Or |
| xor | Either, but not both |
There are a minimal amount of tags to remeber in PHPlater, and almost all of them are changeable
| Tag | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| {{ and }} | Start and end tag for template variable | <li>{{var}}</li> |
| . | Chain separator by which to traverse plates | <li>{{root.var}}</li> |
| | | Filter tag to variable, method followes | <li>{{var|method}}</li> |
| : | Seperator if filter method need arguments | <li>{{var|method:arg1}}</li> |
| , | Seperate the arguments given to method | <li>{{var|method:arg1,arg2}}</li> |
| [[ and ]] | Start and end tag for each element in a list | <ul>[[<li>{{var}}</li>]]</ul> |
| # | To get the key from list | <ul>[[<li>{{ # }}</li>]]</ul> |
| .. | Placement of list in the variable chain | <ul>[[<li>{{list..var}}</li>]]</ul> |
| (( and )) | Start and end tag for conditional expression | (( {{var}} ?? true :: false )) |
| ?? | Tag after condition, followed by true result | (( {{var}} ?? true )) |
| :: | Tag after true result, followed by false result | (( {{var}} ?? :: false )) |
| ~ | Default preg delimiter |
PHPUnit 9.5.21 is used. Download phpunit.phar and, in the root folder of the project, run tests with
php c:/path/to/phpunit.pharFor code coverage, add " --coverage-text" to the command, and use xDebug or similar of your choice.
Other tools like psalm and PHPStan are used as well for testing to find errors.
c:/path/to/vendor/bin/psalm --show-info=true --no-cachec:/path/to/vendor/bin/phpstan analyse src --level=9Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.
Please make sure to update tests as appropriate.
At the moment, very few - although more rewriting is needed.
PHPDocumentator v.3.3.1 is used for generating documentation from PHPDoc in code. Download phpDocumentor.phar and run the following in the project folder to update it.
php c:/path/to/phpDocumentor.phar -d src -t docs