[RFC|Accepted] Pre-Compile Template Includes

[Kellanved]

It is a rather frequent nuisance that MODs need to add a snipped to the template, complicating the installation on styles other than the default. To overcome this limitation, I propose the introduction of a new kind of template variable: A pre-compile insertion region., "<!-- REGION: {NAME} -->". Essentially a template variable that is replaced before the compiler runs, not on run-time.

The concept is that the template compiler calls a hook "template_region", which - if defined in a MOD - returns a template snippet for the given region (header, footer, postrow,...). These snippets are then injected into the template during compilation, allowing the edit-less adaption of template files.

Core Advantages

• Editless addition of template snippets
• Eases updates
• Makes MODs independent of styles
• Able to respect styles by means of injecting includes
• Little to no performance hit, as only called in template compile
• Not too hard to implement

[Oleg]

How would you handle two mods supplying data for the same NAME?

How would the template know that a mod supplies such data? Which mod supplies the data?

[EXreaction]

Yes, I used something like this for my User Blog Mod along with the hooks.

This is an absolute requirement if you want to see much use of hooks that do not require edits to templates. Areas like the header, footer, viewtopic, posting panels, etc.

[Kellanved]

How would you handle two mods supplying data for the same NAME?

How would the template know that a mod supplies such data? Which mod supplies the data?

All MODs providing input for a region are called, their snippets concatenated.

[Highway of Life]

ExpressionEngine uses something similar to this proposal for their plugins. It is extremely powerful and enables you to create custom plugins that only modify a template and not the core code. Here are some examples: (hopefully this is helpful)

Code: Select all

{exp:hello_world:foo}

Which would call the file: /third_party/hello_world/pi.hello_world.php

Code: Select all

<?php

class hello_world
{
    public function foo()
    {
        return '<p>Hello Foo World!</p>';
    }
} 

Produces:

Code: Select all

<p>Hello Foo World!</p>

You can also include parts of the templates within processing, for example...

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{exp:modify_text:urlencode}
some text to encode.
{/exp:modify_text:urlencode}

And even use loops...

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{exp:people:display}
	<dl>
		<dt>{name}</dt>
		<dd>{address}</dd>
	</dl>
{/exp:people:display}

Plugin files:

Code: Select all

<?php

class modify_text
{
    public function urlencode()
    {
        return urlencode(trim($this->EE->TMPL->tagdata));
    }
} 

Code: Select all

<?php

class people
{
    public function display()
    {
        $results = $this->EE->db->get('people');
        $data = array();

        foreach ($results as $row)
        {
            $data[] = array(
                'name'        => $row['name'],
                'address'    => $row['address'],
            );
        }
        
        return $this->EE->TMPL->parse_variables($this->EE->TMPL->tagdata, $data);
    }
} 

[EXreaction]

Something like that would be useful as well.

I would suggest something like that being supported or allowing for hook directories within the style directory that are auto-loaded if that style is used. That allows some extra neat things to be done for specific templates without affecting all of them (one I used of that style was changing the date/time format for a specific style to fit in much more nicely).

[Highway of Life]

Hmm... after reading the first post again, I think my request is fairly different. Perhaps I should create an RFC for that kind of template /engine plugin feature?

[Kellanved]

Indeed, HoL: your proposal is about calling functions from within the template. That's already covered by the PHP tag in the template syntax - functionality- and security -wise , there's nothing to be gained by adding a dedicated syntax IMHO.
My proposal is about injecting template code from within a MOD without editing files, allowing the easy addition of output.

[MichaelC]

I think this would be something good for the modding community but how would they support more than one MOD using that hook?

[igorw]

Has been answered a few posts above: viewtopic.php?p=207531#p207531