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Template Parser Class

- -

The Template Parser Class enables you to parse pseudo-variables contained within your view files. It can parse simple -variables or variable tag pairs. If you've never used a template engine, pseudo-variables look like this:

- -

<html>

-<head>

-<title>{blog_title}</title>

-</head>

-<body>

-

-<h3>{blog_heading}</h3>

-

-{blog_entries}

-<h5>{title}</h5>

-<p>{body}</p>

-{/blog_entries}

-
-</body>

-</html>

- -

These variables are not actual PHP variables, but rather plain text representations that allow you to eliminate -PHP from your templates (view files).

- -

Note: CodeIgniter does not require you to use this class -since using pure PHP in your view pages lets them run a little faster. However, some developers prefer to use a template engine if -they work with designers who they feel would find some confusion working with PHP.

- -

Also Note: The Template Parser Class is not a -full-blown template parsing solution. We've kept it very lean on purpose in order to maintain maximum performance.

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Initializing the Class

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Like most other classes in CodeIgniter, the Parser class is initialized in your controller using the $this->load->library function:

- -$this->load->library('parser'); -

Once loaded, the Parser library object will be available using: $this->parser

- - -

The following functions are available in this library:

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$this->parser->parse()

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This method accepts a template name and data array as input, and it generates a parsed version. Example:

- -

$this->load->library('parser');

-

-$data = array(

-            'blog_title' => 'My Blog Title',

-            'blog_heading' => 'My Blog Heading'

-            );

-

-$this->parser->parse('blog_template', $data);

- -

The first parameter contains the name of the view file (in this example the file would be called blog_template.php), -and the second parameter contains an associative array of data to be replaced in the template. In the above example, the -template would contain two variables: {blog_title} and {blog_heading}

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There is no need to "echo" or do something with the data returned by $this->parser->parse(). It is automatically -passed to the output class to be sent to the browser. However, if you do want the data returned instead of sent to the output class you can -pass TRUE (boolean) to the third parameter:

- -$string = $this->parser->parse('blog_template', $data, TRUE); - -

$this->parser->parse_string()

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This method works exactly like parse(), only accepts a string as the first parameter in place of a view file.

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Variable Pairs

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The above example code allows simple variables to be replaced. What if you would like an entire block of variables to be -repeated, with each iteration containing new values? Consider the template example we showed at the top of the page:

- -

<html>

-<head>

-<title>{blog_title}</title>

-</head>

-<body>

-

-<h3>{blog_heading}</h3>

-

-{blog_entries}

-<h5>{title}</h5>

-<p>{body}</p>

-{/blog_entries}

-
-</body>

-</html>

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In the above code you'll notice a pair of variables: {blog_entries} data... {/blog_entries}. -In a case like this, the entire chunk of data between these pairs would be repeated multiple times, corresponding -to the number of rows in a result.

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Parsing variable pairs is done using the identical code shown above to parse single variables, -except, you will add a multi-dimensional array corresponding to your variable pair data. -Consider this example:

- - -

$this->load->library('parser');

-

-$data = array(

-              'blog_title'   => 'My Blog Title',

-              'blog_heading' => 'My Blog Heading',

-              'blog_entries' => array(

-                                      array('title' => 'Title 1', 'body' => 'Body 1'),

-                                      array('title' => 'Title 2', 'body' => 'Body 2'),

-                                      array('title' => 'Title 3', 'body' => 'Body 3'),

-                                      array('title' => 'Title 4', 'body' => 'Body 4'),

-                                      array('title' => 'Title 5', 'body' => 'Body 5')

-                                      )

-            );

-

-$this->parser->parse('blog_template', $data);

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If your "pair" data is coming from a database result, which is already a multi-dimensional array, you can simply -use the database result_array() function:

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-$query = $this->db->query("SELECT * FROM blog");

-

-$this->load->library('parser');

-

-$data = array(

-              'blog_title'   => 'My Blog Title',

-              'blog_heading' => 'My Blog Heading',

-              'blog_entries' => $query->result_array()

-            );

-

-$this->parser->parse('blog_template', $data);

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CodeIgniter User Guide Version 2.0.3

Template Parser Class

Initializing the Class

$this->parser->parse()

$this->parser->parse_string()

Variable Pairs