template-engine.md

User Interface > Template Engine (SMLite)

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This page covers some of the advanced topics of SMLite. For usage and introduction, follow to introduction to templates

Parsing

When template is loaded, it's represented in the memory as an array. Example Template:

Hello <?subject?>world<?/?>!!

SMLite converts the template into the following structure available under $smlite->template.

Content of tags are parsed recursively and will contain further arrays. In addition to the template tree, tags are indexed and stored inside "tags" property.

// template property:
array ( 
  0 => 'Hello ', 
  'subject#1' => array ( 
    0 => 'world', 
  ), 
  1 => '!!', 
)

// tags property
array (
  'subject'=> array( &array ),
  'subject#1'=> array( &array )
)

As a result each tag will actually add two tags. If tag with same name is added, reference to a region is added inside respective tag sub-array. This allow $smlite->get() to quickly retrieve contents of appropriate tag and it will also allow render() to reconstruct the output.