Help with default variables in my simple View class...

cgm225

Currently I have a simple Model-View-Controller, in which I have a simple View class. The View class has a render method that receives an array from a helper class, and this array ($this->viewData) is turned into variables which are then used in a template.

So the flow is like this:

An array is passed to the View class -> the array keys and values are turned into variables -> those variables are used in a template.

An example would be:

[website_title] => Example.com -----> $website_title = Example.com; -----> echo $website_title (within the title tags in the template)

However, I also want to have default variables provided in the class somehow such that, if a required variable is not provided in the passed array, then the default value would be loaded.

So, with the example above, if the passed array does not contain the website_title, then the default website_title will be loaded from somewhere.

Currently, my View class does the behavior I have just described (see below). However, I feel like there is probably a better way to do this instead of including "hard coded" variables in the class.

Any ideas?

class View extends ActionController {

public function render() {

    //Default variables, (To be placed in an outside/included file(?))
    $title = "Example.com";

    //This foreach function goes over all of the elements in $this->viewData array, creates
    //a variable for every value, and the name of the value (the variable name) is the key's value.
    foreach ($this->viewData as $key => $value) {
        $$key = $value;
    }

    //Including a template file within which variables are echoed
    require_once $this->pageDir . "/default.tpl";
}
}

Thank you all in advance!

dougal85

The simplest way would be to check in the render function.


if(!isset($data['key'])){

  $data['key'] = "Default value";

}

It depends how many you are likely to have I guess. If there is going to be loads you might want to put them into a separate file or something...

halojoy

Probably you know this already
but you can combine keys and values using [man]array_combine[/man].

Sometimes
we can setup a default array with default values (for example in config.php )
and then if we want to overwrite any value in this array, later,
we can use an array of only those values to be changed
and
run [man]array_merge[/man]

If the input arrays have the same string keys, then the later value for that key will overwrite the previous one.

in this case, array2 will overwrite defaults in array1

$result = array_merge($array1, $array2);

Aslo we can add 2 array, like I do in my Template Class.
By simple make $arr1 + $arr2:

    public function assign($varr){
        //Union of 2 arrays. 
        //If same key, submitted $varr value will be set
        $this->tparr = $varr + $this->tparr;
        return $this->tparr;    

    }

regars 🙂

dougal85

cgm225 wrote:

        foreach ($this->viewData as $key => $value) {
            $$key = $value;
        }

On a side note, you can use extract to replace that foreach.

http://uk2.php.net/extract

cgm225

How does this look? Would you make any other improvements (though still keeping this class very simple)?

View class:

class View extends ActionController {

public function render() {

    //Including default template settings
    require_once $this->pageDir . '/defaultTplSettings.php5';

    /*  
        Merging the default template settings with variables provided in the
        $this->viewData array from the Actions class, giving priority to
        those provided by the action class, all this then followed by
        extraction of the array with the extract() function, which creates a
        variable for every array value, and the name of the value (the
        variable name) is the key's value.
    */

    $templateSettings = array_merge($defaultTemplateSettings, $this->viewData);
    extract($templateSettings, EXTR_OVERWRITE);

    //Including template file within which the action View file is included
    require_once $this->pageDir . '/default.tpl';
}
}

defaultTplSettings.php5:

<?php

$defaultTemplateSettings = array();

$defaultTemplateSettings['title'] = 'Example.com';

?>

Thanks again for all your help!

halojoy

Think you have found a way.
Try it.
If it doesnt work, come back here.

If it works, as I suppose, then you: Don't Worry - Be Happy 🙂

see you, later maybe
halojoy