PHPLIB . conditional HTML

PHPdev

I am looking to use the PHPLIB templating system to do something like this...

$x = 0;

if ($x == 0) {
   echo "<br> I am here";
}

Can anyone explain how this can be acomplished using the PHPLIB templating system?

Thanks

PHPdev

sarahk

Aaaaah, you've fried my brain

Do you understand the purpose of a templating system?
Have you tried the examples provided with phplib?
Do you have the debugged version (see attachment)?

I think you need to explain more what you need to do.

phpLib will not show any placeholders if there isn't data, so if $x <> 0 you won't get the <br>I am here message <-- assuming you have set _var etc.

On http://www.pcpropertymanager.com/contact check out the source. I have comments around some images which declare that I'm online. In my template I have some holders which are never filled if I'm online. If I'm online I put in html comment markers which the browser uses to hide the images.

I guess you need to be clearer about the issue

PHPdev

sarahk,

Thank you for the information, and I would be most apprecitive if you could help me with a few concepts with PHPLIB.

As I understand a templating system it is so that one can seperate the HTML (formatting) and the PHP code. After developing many applications over the years, I see the advantages, in the area of maintainability and even portablity (between sites)

I only found one example in the PHPLIB documentation, and it acutally generated an error (which I was able to fix). If there are more, please let me know.

I have seen the debugged version of template.inc, but have not found any reason to use it yet. I am still experimenting with PHPLIB.

I guess what I am really looking to do is to display an error code. For instance lets just say I have a simple form with 1 field called name. If the person submits the form with "name" filled in, then ok.. but if they leave it blank then I need to display an error.

In the past I would have formatted the HTML and PHP something like

<?php
   if (strcmp("",$_POST["name"]) == 0) {
       echo "<font color='#FF0000'>Please enter a name</font>";
   }
?>

Many times the form would be in a table for formatting, and I would not even want to include the extra row, or colum, if there is no error. This is more of what I am looking for with conditonal HTML. How using the templating system in PHPLIB can I exclude an entire row of an HTML table?

Are you saying that you would put HTML comments around it?

Thanks Again

PHPdev

sarahk

I don't want people hacking my site but check out

http://www.pcpropertymanager.com/v2/adminlimit.php

view the source and note that at the top there's no warning banner.

click on any of the go buttons.

Now see there is a feedback strip. I actually load the html for that against a placeholder and so I see it when I need it. I use this in a number of places on my site. On the ordering page too when the email is wrong, or not enough info etc.

PHPdev

sarahk,

This is all making sense, but the question still remains, how are you accomplishing this on the back end?

Do you actually assign a variable with the values being "<table... /table>"; or by placeholder do you mean some other method?

Again, thanks for the information...

PHPdev

sarahk

in my html I have

<h3>Limited range of Admin tasks can be automated from this page.</h3>
{FEEDBACK}
<form name="FormName" action="adminlimit.php" method="post">
<table>

and in my php I have

  $feedback = "";
// More code, check the pwd etc

  if ($action == "redistribute")
  {
    $feedback = distribute($distFile);
    if (empty($feedback))
      $feedback = "Redistribution was successful.";
  }
  elseif ($action == "backup")
  {
    include("includes/mysqlbackup.h");  

    if ($optBackup == "email")
    {
      //send the email
      $feedback = "Backup file has been sent";
    }
  }
//more code

//I do this here so I can be sure that all the other code has to worry about is the message.
if (strlen($feedback) > 0)
  $feedback = "<table width='100%' border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='2' bgColor='#ffffff'><tr><td><font color='red'>$feedback</font>&nbsp;</td></tr></table>";

  $t->set_var( "FEEDBACK", $feedback)

I hope this helps!

xblue

I hope I won't contribute to any confusion, but I understood you need a dynamic block that is conditional,
stripping the complete block if no error is present, is that it?

something like

<!-- template file -->
<!-- BEGIN error -->
<p>An error has occured.</p>
<!-- END error -->

// script
$tpl->set_block($template, 'error', 'error_message');
if (!$error){
    $tpl->set_var('error_message', '');
}

worked fine for me when I used the phplib template class.

sarahk

I haven't tried xblue's method but that would be good for a more complex message block. Easier to code and maintain

you can see in my example how a simple block is still a bit of a handful - and brings formatting back into the program - going against the grain of the template philosophy 🙂

PHPdev

xblue,

Would this example of a conditional block go in a seperate file from the main template file. Meaning could you put it in one file and just not have this section show? or doe sit have to go into a seperate file for this to work?

Also I noticed that you said " when I used the phplib template class", does this mean you are no longer using it. If so why, did you stop? Have you found something else that works better?

SarahK,

Thanks for all you help

Thanks

PHPdev

xblue

no no, I used to use another template system before and then switched to phplib, but in my last few projects there wasn't much need for a template system at all.

you can nest dynamic blocks as deep as you want with phplib, so is no need for additional files. you only need to take care that the html comment tags are present, and that you define the block properly with set_block().