PHP tag replacement method

Question

I am storing HTML layouts within a MySQL database. These layouts may contain tags within the HTML as show below..

{site.poll="fred,joe,john"}

and

{site.layout.header}

Currently i am searching the HTML template by executing multiple preg_matches to identify the tags, looping through the array then executing a str_replace(), replacing with another partial html template also pulled back from the db.. Example below..

  if (preg_match_all('/{site\.layout\.(.)*}/', $data, $match) != FALSE)
  {
     foreach($match[0] as $value)
     {
        $value = trim($value, '{}');

        $tmp_store   = explode('.', $value);
        $tmp_partial = $this->parse($this->get_layout(end($tmp_store)));
        $data        = str_replace('{'. $value .'}', $tmp_partial, $data);
     }
  }

I would need to execute a regex for each tag i required, then execute a str_replace on each instance of that tag.. The same again would need doing for each required partial template.. To me, this is all seeming to get heavy..

Is there a better way of doing this?

Thanks in advance..

Edit: I do not want to use an existing library, i would like to do this task myself and learn in the process..

is the only reason you use preg_match_all, to collect all the tags from the template? Generally your code would have a list of tags that need to go into the template. Wouldn't it be more efficient to push the array/object of data into the template? Then just str_replace what you have. If your worried about left over tags, then do a sweep at the end to clear them with white space. — Bradmage
– Bradmage, Commented Mar 11, 2012 at 16:45
mmm.. Just looking at your $tmp_partial line. Looks like your framework is backwards to mine. Do you load the required pieces of html/data by what tags are in the template? I collect all my data first, then run through the array str_replace-ing each tag, since the logic is built with the template, there shouldn't be any stray tags (I use a base IE: array('head'=>'','body'=>'') so everything is covered from the start. — Bradmage
– Bradmage, Commented Mar 11, 2012 at 16:49
Pretty much, i was planning on bringing the HTML together out of the DB, then looping through replacing all tag instances.. — Lee
– Lee, Commented Mar 12, 2012 at 8:40
i cannot think of a better way to do it unless you change the design, but i noted a little mistake, your regex should be /{site\.layout\.(.)+}/ with + instead of * else {site.layout.} will probably break your routine — venimus
– venimus, Commented Mar 14, 2012 at 14:04

Cfreak · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-29 21:07:32Z

5

Well you could use preg_replace to find and replace your tags in one shot.

The best approach in my opinion would be to use an existing template system such as Twig or Smarty. I know for sure that you can read data into Smarty (it doesn't have to be from a file). I'm sure Twig has something similar.

Twig and Smarty also provide caching options so you aren't rebuilding your template on every request. However they work best if the templates are stored in files.

If you really must roll your own template system you should build some kind of parser that actually checks the content character by character. This will likely be faster and more accurate than regular expressions (though more complex)

answered Feb 29, 2012 at 21:07

Cfreak

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2 Comments

sg3s Over a year ago

Last paragraph doesn't have to be true; PCRE regexes can in some cases be much faster than PHPs internal functions which can be used to loop through a string. This is because the PCRE engine has been optimalized (for parsing) for years and PHP has another layer of code which slows it down a bit.

Oleg Over a year ago

+1 for recommending an existing template system. Unless making the above work is a goal in itself (i.e. a learning experience), there is no real need to reinvent the bike.

Bradmage · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-12 09:43:23Z

I don't expect this to answer your question as such, but thought it might give you something else to think about. Some code I've got for when my template class is overkill.

function replace_tags(&$xhtml, $tags) {
    if( is_array($tags) && count($tags) > 0 )
        foreach ($tags as $tag => $data) {
            $xhtml = str_replace("{{" . $tag . "}}", $data, $xhtml);
        }

    if( $xhtml ) return $xhtml;
}

$tpl = "/templates/index.xhtml";
$tags = array(
    "css"             => null,
    "js"              => null,
    "main_content"    => null
);

$tags['main_content'] = file_get_contents("/home/main.xhtml");

echo replace_tags(file_get_contents($tpl), $tags);

edit

Thought I'd clarify on the reason the function receives $xhtml by reference, and also returns $xhtml. Basically just to make it dual purpose.

//Usage at the end of a page
echo replace_tags(file_get_contents($tpl), $tags);

//Usage for template in template
$tags['menu'] = file_get_contents($menu_tpl);
replace_tags($tags['menu'], $tags);

echo replace_tags(file_get_contents($tpl), $tags);

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