CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phphtml
Crizly
Crizly

Reputation: 1009

HTML Makeshift Template System

On my website i've got a number of folders named news / blog / products etc... all of these sections are virtually the same setup apart from small internal styling changes in the head, instead of copying and pasting the same file n-amount of times i'd rather have a template, and I started doing it like this:

Part 1.html:

<?php
    require_once "directory/functions.php";
?><!DOCTYPE html>
<html><head>

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://example.org/folder/style1.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://example.org/folder/style2.css">

<style type="text/css">

Part 2.html:

</style>

<title> <?php get_title(explode('/', $_GET['$url'])); ?></title>

</head><body>
<?php 
    include "../topborder.html";
    include "../banner.php";
    include "../navbar.html";
?>
<div id="container">
<div id = "article_container">
    <?php
        $uri = explode('/', $_GET['$url']);
        get_article($uri[0]);
    ?>
</div>
<?php include "../folder/sidepanel.html"; ?>
</div></body></html>

In between parts 1 and 2 I can just slot in the internal styling for the page. While this is working fine, it seems a little hacky - am i going to run into many performance or any other issues with a setup like this? - While this setup is easier for me as I only have to change 1 file to effect all areas I'm a little worried about the performance. Is there a better way to do this?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 60

Answers (3)

hutchbat
hutchbat

Reputation: 796

Repeating yourself costs more time up front, and potentially a lot more down the road if you have to go back and make the same change in multiple places. DRY ( Don't Repeat Yourself ) reduces duplication and the maintenance problems coming with it.

In your example you're including different HTML files, we can make a function that includes any of your HTML templates. Benefits: shorter code, you don't need to remember the path of every file, if you need to change an HTML file you only do this once.

<?php

    // Add this to functions

    function get_template($template = '') {

        $path = '/absolute/path'; // Absolute path to your project

        $templates = array(
            'topBorder' => '/views/topborder.html',
            'banner' => '/views/banner.html',
            'navBar' => '/views/navBar.html',
            'sidePanel' => '/views/sidepanel.html'
        );

        if(isset($templates[$template])) {
            $templateFile = $path . $templates[$template];
            if(file_exists($templateFile))
                include($templateFile);
        }

    }

    // Instead of including some static HTML
    // We only call the function with the corresponding template

    get_template('navBorder');
    get_template('banner');
    get_template('navBar');

Upvotes: 1

Giacomo1968
Giacomo1968

Reputation: 26056

I'm a little worried about the performance. Is there a better way to do this?

Why? The PHP tags coming before HTML means 100% of nothing. The PHP will be acted on as PHP & the second the HTML <!DOCTYPE html> comes along, it gets spit directly through the web server as HTML.

Upvotes: 0

Sesertin
Sesertin

Reputation: 462

This is the same layout technique as a WordPress page uses. You shall be fine. If you need proof download a free WordPress theme and take a look at it.

Upvotes: 1

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