Do you think this is ok? (open/close php tags)

Tea_J

i was wondering if you guys think this statement is ok?

<?
if( $searchType == "direct"){
	//do nothing
}else{ //insert step out of PHP and 

?>  
this is just plain text with   <b>HTML and PHP stuffs.. by </b> <? echo "blah" ?>;

<?
}

?>

you see, if the condition allows, i want to output an html content with embedded php functions as well.. now instead of using echo, i would like to just make the php step out and let the regular html/php code run, then step back in again..

what do you guys think? it sure seems to work on my scripts.. just wondering if this is acceptable coding habit..

tea

rachel2004

The way you're doing it is fine. It is faster than relying on echo statements in PHP to output the HTML.

Be aware that you cannot do this in a class file if you are writing object-oriented code in PHP since a class file cannot be broken up. However, if you are writing a procedural file, you should be okay based on the example that you gave.

mrhappiness

Originally posted by rachel2004
Be aware that you cannot do this in a class file if you are writing object-oriented code in PHP since a class file cannot be broken up.

You should use classes for working with data in every thinkable manner

Outputting these data should be done by the script itself

rachel2004

Originally posted by mrhappiness
You should use classes for working with data in every thinkable manner

No, not every thinkable manner. If you are teaching a beginning PHP programmer to do a "hello world" file, procedural is perfectly fine. No need for the overhead of OOP in that case, besides confusing the student.

mrhappiness

Wasn't meant this way.

I wanted to say that if you're working with classes those classes should not produce any output by themselves but return data

rachel2004

Cool...😃

Tea_J

umm.. im old fashioned.. still using procedural here. sticking with it since im comfortable with it already..

thanks for the inputs guys

TheDefender

If you are wanting to combine PHP and HTML like that, something you may want to look into is using the HEREDOC syntax. It can get real messy when you step in and out of php tags and HEREDOC can help clean that up a bit. (It may or may not be a practical solution, depending on what you're trying to do, so don't think I am telling you to do it... just throwing out another option here.)

Tea_J

Hey man thanks! I like that <<<HTML one.. instead of echoing HTML text with the perks of single and double quoting and stuff, i can just use this.. thanks!

bradgrafelman

Yup, I use heredoc instead of exiting PHP a lot.

Mainly because in heredoc you can still include PHP variables, just surround them in brackets {}!

planetsim

You really should seperate logic from presentation. There should be no HTML within a PHP file, it eventually gets way too cluttered and hard to maintain. You may want to look into using a Templating System such as Smarty or even one made by yourself.

Also dont use short_tags

<?

This is because if you start dabbling with XML PHP will think you have PHP tag there and attempt to parse it.

If you can turn short_tags Off and use

<?php

instead.

Tea_J

Mainly because in heredoc you can still include PHP variables, just surround them in brackets {}!

what do you mean? I my variables seem to work fine without those bracket thingues...

here's one of the parts i use heredoc:

echo
<<<HTML
	</p>
<table width='100%'  border='0' cellspacing='2' cellpadding='2'>
  <tr>
    <td width='23%'><div align='center'><img src='../../resource-database/thumb.php?pic_id=pics/$aid.jpg'></div></td>
    <td width='77%'><table width='100%' height='163'  border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='2'>
        <tr valign='top' bgcolor='#82C0FF'>
          <td height='19'><div align='right'><b>Record No.</b> $aid </div></td>
        </tr>
        <tr valign='top'>
          <td height='92'><table width='100%'  border='0' cellspacing='2' cellpadding='2'>
              <tr>
                <td width='16%'><b>Name:</b></td>
                <td colspan='2'><b>$fullName</b></td>
                <td width='14%'><b>Setup Date:</b> </td>
                <td width='27%'>$setup_date</td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
                <td><b>Location:</b></td>
                <td colspan='2'>$city, $province</td>
                <td><b>Last Login:</b> </td>
                <td>$last_login</td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
                <td><b>Email:</b></td>
                <td colspan='4'>$email</td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
                <td><b>Mobile No: </b></td>
                <td colspan='4'>$mobile</td>
              </tr>
              <tr>
                <td class='tdBody'><div align='center'><b>OPTIONS</b></div></td>
                <td width='23%' bgcolor='#FFFFFF'><div align='center'><a href='../../resource-database/sprofile.php?id=$aid' target='_blank'><img src='../../imgs/icons/search.png' alt='view profile' width='24' height='24' border='0'></a><br>
                    View <br>
                </div></td>
                <td width='20%' bgcolor='#FFFFFF'><div align='center'><a href='delete_s_confirm.php?aid=$aid'&theaction=tea_multi_delete&'><img src='../../imgs/icons/delete.png' alt='delete profile' width='24' height='24' border='0'></a><br>
                    Delete</div></td>
                <td colspan='2' bgcolor='#FFFFFF'><div align='center'><img src='../../imgs/icons/burn.png' alt='add to multiple delete routine' width='24' height='24'>
                        <input type='checkbox' name='id_$aid' value=''>
                        <br>
                    Add to multiple delete </div>
                    <div align='center'></div>
                    <div align='center'></div></td>
              </tr>
          </table></td>
        </tr>
    </table></td>
  </tr>
</table>
<hr>

HTML;

seems to work perectly.

@
thanks for your input

rachel2004

Originally posted by planetsim
You really should seperate logic from presentation. There should be no HTML within a PHP file, it eventually gets way too cluttered and hard to maintain.

I agree with this 100%, but in practical life, I find that I still have to slip PHP variables into the value attributes of "input" fields, for example, if I'm redirecting a user back to an incorrectly filled out form.

The best I've been able to accomplish is to break the page into portions (header, column left, main/content, column right, footer, etc), but this just breaks the pages into workable modules, and does not necessarily that logic is separated from presentation.

If you know of a way to completely avoid feeding any PHP code to the HTML markup, I'd love to hear it. It would help me overcome the clutter that you mentioned, planetsim. TIA.

procoder

It all depends how much you care about it.

If you work in a professional enviroment (coding with a team, e.t.c) then its more practical to seperate the html from the php.

But if you could care less and just want a script done, then this is fine. Nothing really wrong with doing it this way, no real parsing time difference.

Also it depends on how big your project is.

rachel2004

procoder, I'm totally on board with what you're saying. What I'm asking for is the way of completely separating logic from presentation. Even if I strive for it, I still find that it's necessary to insert some PHP variables into HTML.