File: README

DirecTemplate - Simple, efficient template system
Version 1.1.7
Copyright 2003-2005, Steve Blinch
http://code.blitzaffe.com
============================================================================

OVERVIEW


Variables:

Variables assigned with $tpl->assign("myvar","value") can be
accessed as {$myvar} in templates.


Loops:

Loops are structured as:

{loop $iterator=$myvar}
This element of myvar is: {$iterator}.  The key is {$_loop.key}.
{/loop}

This is roughly equivalent in PHP to "foreach ($myvar as $iterator)".
Inside loops, the value of the current element is assigned to
{$iterator}, and the {$_loop} variable contains an array of various
information about the current iteration of the loop.

$_loop elements include:
$_loop.key (the current key in the array)
$_loop.iteration (current iteration)
$_loop.odd (false if iteration is evenly divisible by 2)
$_loop.first (true if this is the first iteration of the loop)
$_loop.last (true if this is the last iteration of the loop)


Conditionals:

If statements are structured in the following manner:

{if $var1==$var2} var1 equals var2 {/if}
{if $var1} var1 is not false, zero, or null {/if}
{if $var1==$var2} var1 equals var2 {else} var1 does not equal var2 {/if}
{if $var1>$var2} greater {elseif $var1<$var2} lesser {else} equal {/if}


Transformations:

Transformations modify the text inside their tags.  They
are structured in the following manner:

{tranform strtoupper}this string will appear in uppercase{/transform}
-or-
{$variable|strtoupper}

Other transformations available currently include:

ucfirst			Identical to PHP functions of same names
strtolower
strtoupper
ucwords
urlencode
urldecode
htmlentities
addslashes
stripslashes
abs
round
floor
ceil
striptags

count			Returns the number of elements if variable is an array,
or 0 if not an array


yesno			Outputs "Yes" if contents are non-null/non-zero/true,
otherwise displays "No"
truefalse		Same as "yesno", but outputs "True" or "False"
random			Outputs a random number (ignores any content)
vardump			Outputs var_dump(variable) - use "variable", not "{$variable}"!
null			Null transform, displays contents unmodified

noquotes		Replaces all "'s with &quot;'s
nbsp			Replaces all spaces with &nbsp;'s
nl2br			Replaces all newlines with <BR>'s
base64_encode	BASE64-encodes the variable
chr				Returns the character value of an ordinal value in a variable
ord				Returns the ordinal value of the variable

vardump			Dumps the contents of {$variable}

mysqldatetime	Converts a string from a MySQL DATETIME field to a
more presentable format.

Example usage:

{$timestamp|mysqltimestamp:numeric:date}

Note the use of colons; full=display date/time, date=date only,
time=time only, verbose=use full words, numeric=numbers only.
Verbose/numeric/unix must be specified before full/date/time.
(Unix returns a UNIX timestamp, regardless off full/date/time).

For a date()-style formatted date, it is also possible to use:

{$date_var|mysqltimestamp:formatted:M_d,_H:ia}


mysqltimestamp	Same as mysqldatetime, but accepts a TIMESTAMP
unixtimestamp	Same as mysqldatetime, but accepts a UNIX timestamp
gettime			Same as mysqldatetime, but works with the current time

sprintf			Returns the content string formatted with the specified format
string, eg: {$var|"$%.2f"} performs sprintf('$%.2f',$var)

substr			Returns a portion of the content string, eg: {$var|substr:2}
performs substr($var,2), or {$var|substr:2:5} = substr($var,2,5)
contains		Determines whether a substring appears in a string, eg:
{$var|contains:"string"} performs strpos($var,"string")!==false)

str_replace		Perform a search/replace on the content string.  Be sure to use
quotes around string literals

Example usage:
{$string_var|str_replace:"%%SOMETHING%%":"Something else"}
{$string_var|str_replace:"%%SOMETHING%%":$somethingelse}

preg_replace	Perform a regular expression search/replace on the content string.

Example usage:
{transform preg_replace:/beer[\.]+/:donuts!}Mmm.... beer...{/transform}

Note: the regex is urldecoded before being processed.  As such, if you
need to use a ':' character in your regex, use '%3A' instead.  If you
need a '%', use '%21' instead, etc.

preg_match		Identical in syntax to preg_replace, except it returns 1 if the
content string matched, or 0 if not.

mod				Performs arithmetic operations on the content variable.  eg:
add				{$var|add:2} adds 2 to $var and returns the sum.
sub
mul
div
and
or
xor


in_array		Determines whether a content variable appears in the specified array.
{$var|in_array:myarray} returns true if $var is included in $myarray.
in_keys			Identical in syntax to in_array - determines whether $var is a key in
the specified array.
in_set			Determines whether a content variable appears in the list of arguments
provided.  {$var|in_set:1:3:5} returns true if $var is 1, 3, or 5.

ellipsis		Returns a the content variable truncated to the specified length, with
an ellipsis appended, eg: {$var|ellipsis:8} returns "Tests..." if $var
is set to "Teststring"
midellipsis		Returns a the content variable truncated to the specified length, with
an ellipsis in the middle, and the specified number of trailing
characters intact, eg: {$var|midellipsis:8:2} returns "Tes...ng" if $var
is set to "Teststring"

dateselect		Returns a <SELECT> suitable for choosing a date/time value, eg:
{transform dateselect}basevarname|datetime:allownull:showtime|2003-04-04 00:00:00{/transform}
Then use $this->parse_date_select() in your code to parse the submitted value
and obtain a UNIX timestamp.


Some transformations do not operate on variables, but instead just act as
function calls.  These transformations may be invoked using:

{$_|transformation}

Non-variable transformations currently available include:

range			Returns an array containing the specified numeric range, eg:
{$_|range:5:10} returns an array containing (5,6,7,8,9,10).


Includes:

Use {include "filename.tpl"/} to parse the template filename.tpl and
include its output inside the current template.


Assigning variables within templates:

Occasionally it may be necessary to set variables from within a template,
rather than from the script itself.  The procedure for doing this is
somewhat convoluted due to the non-linear technique that DirecTemplate
uses (for the sake of speed) to parse templates.

Note that you cannot set variables conditionally within an {if} or {check}
clause; {set}, {postset}, and {loopset} tokens are ALWAYS processed no
matter where they are placed in the code.

To assign a variable from within a template, use the following syntax:
{set $varname}Value for variable, {$vars} permitted{/set}

Note that variables set in this manner will be set BEFORE loops are
executed.  Thus, any variables created or modified during a loop will
NOT be accessible through {set} tags.  To perform a {set} operation
AFTER all loops are executed, you may use:

{postset $varname}Value for variable, {$vars} permitted{/postset}

This latter notation should also be used if you intend to set variables
from INSIDE a loop, such that any embedded variables will be parsed after
the loop has been executed.

And finally, if you need to set a variable from INSIDE a loop, which will
also be USED inside the loop, use:

{loopset $varname}Value for variable, {$vars} permitted{/loopset}

Note that variables set using this final notation will ONLY be valid
within during the loop in which they were defined; before and after the
loop, their values should be treated as undefined.


Multiple-page result sets:

DirecTemplate has internal support for displaying sets of data (eg: result
sets from a database server) spanning multiple pages, with a "search engine"
style set of page navigation links.

To prepare the template engine, use:
$tpl->prepare_multipage($pagelimit,$totalitems,$baseurl)

Where $pagelimit is the maximum number of items per page, $baseurl is the
total number of items available, and $baseurl is the URL to which users
should be sent when they click a link.

In your template, use {$_multipage.nav} to display the navigation links.


Custom plug-ins, transforms, and filters:

To define a custom plug-in, add it to the $tpl->plugins array as in:
$tpl->plugins = array("plugin_name"=>"function_to_call");

Then define a function as in:
function function_to_call($arguments) { }

$arguments is an array in the format array("argumentname"=>"value");
Use as: {plugin_name argumentname=value}


To define a custom transform, add it to the $tpl->transforms array as in:
$tpl->transforms = array("transform_name"=>"function_to_call");

Then define a function as in:
function function_to_call($data,$arguments) { }

$data is the data being transformed; $arguments is a list of arguments
passed with the transform.  Use as: {$data|transform_name:argument:...}

Alternately, transforms and plugins may be defined using the
TPL_CUSTOM_TRANSFORMS and TPL_CUSTOM_PLUGINS string constants, eg:
define("TPL_CUSTOM_TRANSFORMS","transform_name:function_to_call|...");

To define a custom filter, add it to the $tpl->filters array as in:
$tpl->filters = array("filter_name"=>"function_to_call");

Then define a function as in:
function function_to_call($data) { }

$data is the final version of the page after parsing, but before being
returned or displayed.  Your filter function should simply return the
filtered version of the data.


HISTORY

1.1.7	- Variables passed to transformations are now evaluated.
- Added in_set transform.
- Made caching system more flexible with regard to expirations.


LICENSE

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
Lesser General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA


NOTES

NOTE: If you don't need the advanced features of the templating engine
(conditional processing, transforms, etc.) you can disable them by
uncommenting the following constants (or defining them in your apps)
to improve performance of your scripts.