PHP and Smarty Execution

Question

For example, I have this query in my news.php file:

$sql = 'SELECT * FROM `news` ORDER BY `id` DESC LIMIT 0, 5'; 
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die("Query failed : " . mysql_error());
while ($line = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    $value[] = $line;
}
// Assign this array to smarty...
$smarty->assign('news', $value);
 // Display the news page through the news template
$smarty->display('news.tpl');

However, in my news.tpl file I will not put the {$news} variables. Will the query still be executed when I browse news.php or it will just be ignored?

Answer 1

Yes, the query will still be executed because you are loading the PHP file first. Once the query is exeucted, your PHP file will load the template whether you put the {$news} or not the database query will be execute.

If you don't need the query to run, you can add a flag (for example):

http://www.domain.com/news.php?show=0

and then in your PHP:

$value = array(); // this way if the variable is not used, you create a empty array.

if(isset($_GET['show']) && $_GET['show'] == 1) {
    $sql = 'SELECT * FROM test.`name` ORDER BY 1 DESC LIMIT 0, 5';
    $result = mysql_query($sql) or die("Query failed : " . mysql_error());
    while ($line = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
        $value[] = $line;
    }
}
// Assign this array to smarty...
$Smarty->assign('news', $value);

// Display the news page through the news template
$Smarty->display('news.tpl');

and in your .tpl:

{section name=loopname loop=$news}
  // your news code
{sectionelse}
  No news today!
{/section}
{$news}