Creating array structure from regular expression match (in template engine)

[gazchap]

I'll do my best to explain this 🙂

I'm writing a CMS for my own personal use (and to save me time at work 😉 ) but I want to make it as flexible as possible so that I can adapt it to any use I need.

For this, I'm using a template engine that I am writing myself.

The problem I'm currently facing is mapping a "tag" in the templates to an array structure that is created from an XML document.

For example:

<button>
   <help>
      <imagename>help.gif</imagename>
      <alttext>
         <en>Help</en>
         <de>Hilfe</de>
         <fr>Aide</fr>
      </alttext>
   </help>
</button>

The array structure generated for the "en" alttext is:

$themeconfig['button']['help']['alttext']['en']  // (which contains "Help")

Now, I would like a way of translating a template tag into this structure. Ideally, I would like to put something like this in the template:

{%THEME:button:help:alttext:en%}

.

Is there anyway I can use a single regular expression (PCRE or POSIX, not fussed!) that can handle all possible permutations of this? i.e. can cope with the example above as well as

{%THEME:button:help:imagename%}

for example?

If there is, could anyone give me a hint as I'm stumped? And if not, are there any other ways that this could be done quickly and effectively?

Thanks for any replies, much appreciated 🙂

[Merve]

What exactly do you mean by handling the possible permutations? What exactly do you want the regular expressions to do?

[gazchap]

Basically, say that the string looks like this - {%THEME:button:help:alttext:en%} - i want the regular expression to change it to this string - $config['theme']['button']['help']['alttext']['en'] - which I can then put into an eval() call to get the value from.

I can do the bit that changes THEME into $config['theme'], and if I hardcode the regular expressions for each possible value, but I'd like to leave it as an expression so that the XML file can be expanded upon without having to change the code.

I'm guessing I need to use repetition in the regular expression somehow, but I'm not sure how.