Module: TemplateEngineFactory

[Wanze]

Hi Sérgio,

As your "normal" template files inside "site/templates" act as controllers, any file you prepend (_init.php) or append (_main.php) works there too. I use the _init.php file to pass any global variables to my loaded view, e.g. main menu items.

You can store your assets anywhere you want and reference them like you did before, you just do this in the view.

If you want to try out the module a bit, I suggest to follow the mini tutorial here: https://github.com/wanze/TemplateEngineSmarty#best-practices

This is for smarty, but it should work for other template engines as well.

Cheers

[Sergio]

Thank you Wanze!

I though exactly this but for some reason didn't work as expected. But it's probaly my fault as I was very tired yesterday.

I'll take a look on the tutorial and try again later.

[justb3a]

Hi, one little question, maybe I just missed something. Is there a way to use a chunk inside a foreach loop?
I use Twig as TemplateEngine, assume the following:
 
/templates/blog.php ... 
/templates/view/blog.twig

...
{% for post in posts %}
  {% include 'partials/intro.twig' %}
{% endfor %}
...

Inside this partial I need some php logic which I don't want to implement using twig. I've no idea how to archive this. If I need something related outside a loop, I write the logic inside my /templates/[name].php file, if I need some code more than once, I define it in a special prependTemplateFile (at this point I would also prefer using a related php file). I know, I could use TemplateDataProvider Page::renderChunk() method which does exactly what I need, but I would prefer using a built-in way (if there is one). 
 
Using TemplateDataProvider:

{% for post in posts %}  
  {{page.renderChunk('partials/intro.twig', post)}}
{% endfor %}

/dataproviders/IntroChunk.php: Logic/assign variables; /partials/intro.twig markup

[Wanze]

Hi justb3a,

The module provides the following functionality to load any view (partial), populate the variables and render its output.

$factory = $modules->get('TemplateEngineFactory');
$partial = $factory->load('partials/intro.twig');
$partial->set('post', $post);
$partial->render();

I know that this is not a direct solution to your question. I don't know TemplateDataProvider myself, but I guess you'd have to write some helper functions to achieve the same functionality.

My approach would probably be to prepare the output already in your blog.php template file, where you're getting the posts. Something like this:

// In blog.php

$blogs = array();
foreach ($pages->find('template=blogs') as $blog) {
  $partial = $factory->load('partial/intro.twig');
  $partial->set('blog', $blog);
  $blogs[] = $partial;
}
$view->set('blogs', $blogs);

// In blog.twig

{% for post in posts %}
  {% post.render %}
{% endfor %}

The module definitely needs an update so that multiple variables can be passed to the view....

Cheers

[justb3a]

// In blog.php

$blogs = array();
foreach ($pages->find('template=blogs') as $blog) {
  $partial = $factory->load('partial/intro.twig');
  $partial->set('blog', $blog);
  $blogs[] = $partial;
}
$view->set('blogs', $blogs);

// In blog.twig

{% for post in posts %}
  {% post.render %}
{% endfor %}

Using this solution I had to loop twice over all blog posts and this is exactly what I want to avoid. I do much more (especially markup stuff) inside the loop which I don't want to construct in php.

I would love to have the possibility to load a related php file for a chunk. $chunk = $factory->load('chunks/pager'); should load /templates/chunks/pager.php where I can do some php stuff and assign variables to /templates/view/chunks/pager.tmpl. Do you see any possibility to achieve this?

By the way: I added a "setMultiple" method inside your factory to be able to submit more than one property at once:

// get posts
$posts = $pages->find("xxx");
$view->setMultiple(array(
  'posts' => $posts,
  'hello' => 'world'
));

// get pager
$factory = $modules->get('TemplateEngineFactory');
$chunk = $factory->load('partials/pager');
if ($chunk) {
  $chunk->setMultiple(array(
    'posts' => $posts,
    'options' => $options->pager
  ));
  $view->set('pager', $chunk->render());
}

If you like it I would send a pull request. But you had to add it to all of your TemplateEngines except TemplateEngineTwig.

Furthermore I updated TemplateEngineTwig: I added Debug-Mode to be able to use {{ dump() }} and I updated the twig version using composer. I could also imagine to implement a little setting "choose twig version" and add the latest versions as you did without composer. If this is fine for you (please tell me which version), I would send a pull request for this, too.  

[Wanze]

I would love to have the possibility to load a related php file for a chunk. $chunk = $factory->load('chunks/pager'); should load/templates/chunks/pager.php where I can do some php stuff and assign variables to /templates/view/chunks/pager.tmpl. Do you see any possibility to achieve this?

Sounds useful, I will take a look at it. I think it should already be possible as you can load any ProcessWire template and render it, e.g.

Edit: Actually I think the code won't work as the hook to modify the rendered output is attached to Page::render(). It should be possible to move the hook to TemplateFile::render()

$chunk = new TemplateFile($config->paths->templates . 'intro.php');
$chunk->foo = 'bar'; // Can be forwarded to Twig in intro.php
$chunk->render(); // This should return the output of the intro.twig template file

But I never tried it, so not 100% sure it works. A little wrapper on the module class wouldn't hurt though, e.g. $factory->loadController('intro.php').

If you like it I would send a pull request. But you had to add it to all of your TemplateEngines except TemplateEngineTwig.

Perfect, please send a pull request (target dev branch)

I'll update ProcessWire and Smarty engines and notify the author of Jade as well.

Furthermore I updated TemplateEngineTwig: I added Debug-Mode to be able to use {{ dump() }} and I updated the twig version using composer. I could also imagine to implement a little setting "choose twig version" and add the latest versions as you did without composer. If this is fine for you (please tell me which version), I would send a pull request for this, too.  

Nice, please send Do you see any benefit in having multiple Twig versions available to choose from?

Cheers

[justb3a]

I sent two pull requests:

• TemplateEngineTwig: adds setMultiple and latest twig version using composer
• TemplateEngineFactory: adds setMultiple and renderChunk methods

Example: How to use a chunk

In template file: /site/templates/view/template.twig

<?php foreach ($nav_pages as $p): ?>
  <?php $page->renderChunk('chunks/nav-item', array('page' => $p)); ?>
<?php endforeach; ?>

/site/templates/chunks/nav-item.php

<?php namespace ProcessWire;

$foo = 'do some logic // something with the contextual data';
$author = $this->page->createdUser;

$view->setMultiple( array(
  'author' => $author,
  'item' => $this->page,
  'foo' => $foo
));

/site/templates/view/chunks/nav-item.tpl

Author: <?= $author ?> <br />
<a href="<?= $item->url ?>" title="<?= $foo ?>">
  <?= $item->title ?>
</a>

 

[dotnetic]

I got a question for translating the strings in the template files, as I have a multilanguage site and use the Smarty Engine. The ProcessWire Language Translator module does not list the files in the folder /site/templates/views nor I can select and translate those files with the "translate file" button. I only see .php files under /site/templates/. My template files got the .html extension but with .tpl extension it also doesn´t work. What do I have to do to translate my template files? Here is my actual file /site/templates/views/products.html

{extends file="main.html"}

{block name="content"}
<h1>Check out the following products</h1>
<span>{__('Dieser String muss in alle Sprachen übersetzt werden')}</span>
<ul>
{foreach $products as $p}
<li><a href="{$p->url}">{$p->title}</a></li>
{/foreach}
</ul>
{/block}

{block name="javascript"}
<script type="javascript" src="{$config->urls->templates}js/products.js"></script>
{/block}

[Wanze]

Hi jmartsch,

One solution would be to set your strings in the products.php template file and forward them to the view, for example:

$view->set('strings', array(
  'hello' => __('Hallo'),
  'test'=> __('Test'),
));

// ... products.tpl

{$strings.hello}

You could also organize all your translations in a single file and reference them via textdomain.

Another possibility would be to register a smarty function which grabs your translation from a central file.

Cheers

[suntrop]

Hi Wanze. First, let me say thank you for this module. I was working with a »twig CMS« lately and loved it. So your module is a great and easy way to take this into a PW project.

I am struggling with twig’s template inheritance and the global template file in your module. Perhaps I got it wrong – but I thought I can define »app« as my global template file and put in it my html like …

// templates/views/app.html
<html>
<body>
 <h1>My Site</hi>
 {% block content %}
  <p>My Content</p>
 {% endblock %}
</body
</html>

… and 

// templates/views/home.html
{% extends "app.html" %}

{% block content %}
 <p>My Homepage</p>
{% endblock %}

Apparently the home.html is somewhere loaded (I get an error message if there is an syntax issue in it) but the app.html is rendered (without the markup in home.html)

Do I have to configure something in the controller files?

Does the inheritance work like this within your module?

[szabesz]

Hi suntrop,

Have you already seen this tutorial? It already has tree parts and introduces Template Engine Factory with Twig:

http://blog.mauriziobonani.com/processwire-basic-website-workflow-part-1/

[Wanze]

@suntrop

Thanks! If you are using the inheritance feature of Twig, you shouldn't use a global template file, I think that might solve the problem.

At the moment, twig always receives the "app.html" template. But what it needs is to receive the "home.tpl" template file. Twig then sees that this template is inheriting from "app.html" and does its magic

Edit:

Maybe this helps https://github.com/wanze/TemplateEngineSmarty#best-practices

It's Smarty, but the template inheritance stuff seems to work the same way in various engines

@szabesz

Cool, nice tutorial! Thanks for sharing the link 

Cheers

[suntrop]

Wanze, thanks for your reply and help. It works now. I think I mixed up global file template and the inheritance of the template engine.

Thanks for the tutorial (and link) as well. Haven't seen it unfortunately. Somewhere about the last sentence made it clear

BTW … it works with PW 3 (just smarty has some Notices, but twig works well so far)

[suntrop]

Perhaps I was wrong and it doesn't work well with PW 3. 

{% if page.images|length > 0 %} 

results in …

Fatal error: Exception: An exception has been thrown during the rendering of a template ("Method Page::images does not exist or is not callable in this context")

[justb3a]

It works well with PW3. This is a twig issue. You have to use:

{% if page['images'] %}

Have a look at this page: How to check if a variable or value exists, this helped me a lot.

Or try to change the Formatted value in the field settings to Array of items. Then you should be able to test using length because this way it returns an empty array.

[suntrop]

Ok, then I was wrong Thanks for the hint and link!

[suntrop]

Sorry to bother you guys again  

I tried to add the Text extension to truncate the body for my articles. In my articles.php (will move it to a better place later) I have:

$page->addHookAfter('initTwig', $twig, 'addExtension');

function addExtension($twig){
	$twig->addExtension(new Twig_Extensions_Extension_Text());
}

… and I uploaded this https://github.com/twigphp/Twig-extensions to /site/modules/TemplateEngineTwig/twig/lib/Twig/Extension

But I still get the message The filter "truncate" does not exist in "articles.twig"

[Wanze]

Your hook does not work for several reasons, try it like this:

wire()->addHookAfter('TemplateEngineTwig::initTwig', function($event) {
  $twig = $event->arguments('twig');
  $twig->addExtension(new Twig_Extensions_Extension_Text());
});

[suntrop]

Thank you! This one produces the same error message. Truncate doesn't exist

Path where I saved the extension should be fine: /site/modules/TemplateEngineTwig/twig/lib/Twig/Extension/Extension/Text.php Isn't it?

[Wanze]

I don't know Twig myself, but I think the problem is that the initTwig() method is called before you are registering your hook, so it is not executed.

Is articles.php your template (controller)? Can you try the following:

wire()->addHookAfter('TemplateEngineTwig::initTwig', function($event) {
  $twig = $event->arguments('twig');
  $twig->addExtension(new Twig_Extensions_Extension_Text());
});

// Trigger initTwig again, just for testing
$factory = $modules->get('TemplateEngineFactory');
$factory->load('articles', true);

This is not nice, if it works, I have to think about other ways...

[suntrop]

It works well with PW3. This is a twig issue. You have to use:

{% if page['images'] %}

Have a look at this page: How to check if a variable or value exists, this helped me a lot.

Or try to change the Formatted value in the field settings to Array of items. Then you should be able to test using length because this way it returns an empty array.

While this one will work with a simple array, I can't use it to display a multi array

This one produces an error when the form isn't submitted

{{ input.post.name }}

and this one doesn't display anything 

{{ input['post']['name'] }}

Any ideas how to fix this?

[suntrop]

HI Wanze, many thanks for your help. I didn't get an email … sometimes I feel like the email updates doesn't work quite well.

However, articles.php was my controller file. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. Had tried Smarty but had problems with it too. Maybe I shouldn't use either of them and go with plain PHP.

[justb3a]

@suntrop:
 
This is how I add a Twig Extension (in my case the Intl Extension, but this shouldn't matter):
 
add Twig Extensions via composer

{
    "require": {
        "twig/extensions": "~1.3"
    }
}

add Hook after initTwig() (as Wanze said)

$this->addHookAfter('TemplateEngineTwig::initTwig', $this, 'addTranslationFunctions');

add Twig Extension

public function addTranslationFunctions(HookEvent $event) {
    $this->twig = $event->arguments(0);
    if (!class_exists('Twig_Extensions_Extension_Intl')) {
        require(wire('config')->paths->TemplateTwigReplaceLanguageSupport . 'vendor/autoload.php');
      }

      $this->twig->addExtension(new Twig_Extensions_Extension_Intl());
  }

---

To check for a multidimensional array, you could try:

{% if input.post is not empty and 'name' in input.post|keys %}

[suntrop]

Hi justb3a

Thanks, that one worked for me! But I removed Twig anyway … it doesn't make sense to me.

[dotnetic]

Hi Wanze,

EDIT: Found the solution by myself. Added to the bottom.

I got a problem with Search and the TemplateEngineFactory (I use Smarty). If I use AJAX my search.php should return a JSON response (with correct headers), if not it should render the template.

The problem is that if I have a template file search.tpl it will always be rendered even if I request with AJAX.

So I renamed the template file and tried to load it on demand in search.php:

if ($config->ajax) {
        header("Content-type: application/json"); // Set header to JSON
        echo $matches->toJSON(); // Output the results as JSON via the toJSON function
    }
    else{
        $factory = $modules->get('TemplateEngineFactory');
        $view = $factory->load('search-results.tpl');
        echo $view->render();
        exit;
    } 

search-results.tpl

{extends file="main.tpl"}
{block name="content"}
    <h1>{$page->title}</h1>
    {$content}
{/block}

Now my AJAX response works and the template gets rendered BUT it seems that variables assignments which I do in the _init.php are not executed. For example I set the browsers title and the main menu structure there, but the menu or the title do not get rendered, although _init.php is prepended because if I do an echo there, it displays on the page.

I hope somebody can help me with this problem.

EDIT: Solution is to just exit at the end of the AJAX clause, so the template does not get rendered

if ($config->ajax) {
        header("Content-type: application/json"); // Set header to JSON
        echo $matches->toJSON(); // Output the results as JSON via the toJSON function
        exit;
    }