Passing through template file with PHP variables in it?

[mikerobb]

Hi-

I have a template file that has some PHP variables inside of it. I would like to pass through the template and evaluate any variables inside the template file. I have "tags" around the PHP variables.

<<TEMPLATE FILE>>
blah html code
<MARKER>$variable1<REKRAM>
blah html code


I can write PHP code to go line by line through the code to find the &quot;marked&quot; code.

$myLine=preg_replace(&quot;/(.*?)<MARKER>(.*?)<REKRAM>(.*?)/&quot;,&quot;$1$2$3&quot;,$myLine);

The above code works fine in removing the &quot;markers&quot; but it does not evaluate the PHP variable.

How do I eval() $2 (the PHP variable)?

Is there an easier way?

-TIA

--Mike Robb

 

[JimEkleberry]

Try referencing it as $$2

 

[gerrygerry]

Or what about ${$2} -gerrygerry
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[rycamor]

Are you just using $1, $2, etc... as pseudocode for this post, or are those actually your variable names? A variable cannot be (or start with) a number.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.variables.php

Unless there is some arcane numbered variable object in preg_replace that I don't know about? -------------------------------------------

&quot;Calculus is just the meaningless manipulation of higher symbols&quot;
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[gerrygerry]

LOL - good catch rycamor!

I've been defeated by a gotcha from CS 101! -gerrygerry
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[mikerobb]

the perl like method does allow $1 to be used instead of the normal php \\1 ($3 for \\3 ...etc.)

the $1 is only usuable inside that method call. so you can not reference it on the subsequent php code statement.

i've tried variations on those and none of them will work - mainly due to the variable complexity.

$class_obj->methodName(&quot;string parm&quot;

it always evaluates the &quot;$class_obj->methodName&quot; to null string and returns (&quot;string parm&quot

the interesting part is that if you have a variable like:
$class_obj->variable it works fine (as does just $variables)

what i ended up doing was using preg_match and use the $matches (3rd parm) array object to rebuild the entire string and use the eval with slashes added.

 

[rycamor]

I was wondering about that. Guess I need to spend some more time with PCRE...

So you are rebuilding the entire string without markers, and making PHP eval that string for variable substitution? There's got to be a better way. Have you looked at how any of the existing PHP template libraries work?

If I read you right, your template, before parsing, might look like this:

blah html code
<MARKER>$class_obj->methodName(&quot;string parm&quot<REKRAM>
blah html code

If you end up eval-ing the whole string, I'm not sure I see the benefit of the template system in the first place. The way most templating systems work, you don't place any PHP style variables in the template itself; you just have an unquoted marker word inside curly braces {MY_VARIABLE}, and then use regex to replace it with the already-substituted PHP value. -------------------------------------------

&quot;Calculus is just the meaningless manipulation of higher symbols&quot;
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;-unknown F student

 

[mikerobb]

LOL. Yes I am sure there is an easier way to do this. I often do things the hard way and then go DOH!

What I have now is a template file that looks like this:

blah html<MARKER>XXXXX(VAR1)</REKRAM>blah html
blah html<MARKER>XXXXX(VAR1)</REKRAM>blah html<MARKER>XXXXX(VAR1)</REKRAM>blah html
blah html
blah html<MARKER>XXXXX(VAR1)</REKRAM>blah html

where &quot;XXXXX&quot; is the name of the object of a class.
(there are several different classes/objects)

so i might have a class that is &quot;WORDS&quot; with a method called LookUp that takes the word to look up.
This class also has a language variable (set by another method) that is used to determine what language the user is wanting - and returning the correct word in that language for the word desired.

so my php reads in the marker to get the varible.
if the variable has a &quot;(&quot; and &quot&quot; in it, then it is going to build a string of the class-object->method(&quot;var1&quot and then eval it. (if no parens it will just treat it like a normal variable and evalulate it - no problem)

if the class is WORDS_CLASS and the object is $WORDS
then I read in:
WORDS(HELLO)
and rebuild the variable as
$WORDS->LookUp(&quot;HELLO&quot and it will evaluate down to
either &quot;Hi&quot; for english, ..etc. for other languages.

clearly this is not the easiest approach.

i am interested in hearing more about the &quot;regex&quot; replace of the {VAR} you mentioned. given the complexity of this I wonder if it really needs to be so much so.

and thanks for the inputs!

 

[rycamor]

If you are interested in researhcing these things further, here is an interesting template library to examine:

http://quicktemplate.sourceforge.net/.

I have not used it extensively yet, but I have found it quite enjoyable to work with. -------------------------------------------

&quot;Calculus is just the meaningless manipulation of higher symbols&quot;
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;-unknown F student

 

[JimEkleberry]

There is also FastTemplate.