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Aste PHP template engine

Author: Andrey Tykhonov <atykhonov@gmail.com>

NOTICE FOR BETA RELEASE:

This release includes ready for use library. It is currently in testing stage.

AN INTRODUCTION TO ASTE

Aste - very fast, small, easy, quick to learn PHP template engine. It is designed to be easy for templating and to be easy in usage with PHP.

Let investigate it!

For example, we have template (template.tpl):

News:
{news}
    {newslist}
        {$content}
        Publication date: {$publication_date}
        Author: {$author}
    {/newslist}
{/news}

Here we can see two types of constructions which uses within Aste template engine:

1. {block}{/block}
2. {$variable}

And it is enough to know only these two constructions. You don't need to know anymore: there are just no more constructions!

To parse such template by means of PHP first of all we need to include all require scripts from library:

include_once 'library/Aste/Template.php';                                                                                                                                                 
include_once 'library/Aste/Block.php';
include_once 'library/Aste/Block/Parser.php';
include_once 'library/Aste/Exception.php';

Then we initialize template:

$template = new Aste_Template('template.tpl');

After that we have $template object by means of which we can do template manipulations:

$news = $template->getBlock('news');
$news->display();
for($i = 1; $i < 6; $i++) {
    // get child cyclic block
    // first of all we need to prepare block and only then use it within the cycle
    $newslist = $news->getBlock('newslist', true); // This is the same as $newslist = $news->loop('newslist');
    // set vars
    $newslist->setVar('content', 'News ' . $i);
    $newslist->setVar('publication_date', date('d-m-Y', time()));
    $newslist->setVar('author', 'Anonymous');
}
echo $template->fetch();

Actually we need to get any block (text wrapped by {block} and {/block} tags) by means of code:

// for conditions
$childBlock = $block->getBlock('name');

or

// for cycles
$childBlock = $block->getBlock('name', true);

and do some manipulations.

Second parameter in getBlock method means that we are going to build cyclic content. So, for conditions we should to use first example and second for cycles.

Also, it is easy to build recursive cycles. 

For such purposes, instead of $block->loop('childname') (or $block->getBlock('childname', true)), we just need to use $block->rloop().

Template for a recursive cycles will be such as:

{category}
    {$category}
{category}

Please note: variable {$category} has the same name as block.

Then in php:

// get category block
$category = $template->getBlock('category');
$category->setVar('name', 'root');
$category->display();

// prepare block for recursive cycle
$category->rloop();

// get recently initialized child block
$child = $category->getBlock('category');
$child->setVar('name', 'child');
$child->display(); 

echo $template->fetch();


That's all!