Clarence Eldefors blog Mostly about the web and technology

23Jul/110

Send data to include files with dwoo

Sometimes it is wanted to send some data, like title or an id to an included template with Dwoo. Even though described in the manual I did not first look there because I mostly don't find what I look for there. So in case anyone else have the same bother; this will solve it:

{include(file='elements/google-like-button.tpl' url='http://www.eldefors.com')}

This will allow you to use $url in the included template just as if it was a local variable.

More features that one might miss or look too long for in the docs:
Scope $__.var will always fetch 'var' variable from template root. This is useful for loops where scope is changed.
Loop names Adding name="loopname" lets you access it's variables. inside a nested construct by accessing $.foreach.loopname.var (change foreach with your loop element).
Default view for empty foreach By adding a {else} before your end tag you can output data for empty variables passed without an extra element.

What is Dwoo some might wonder. It is a template system with similar syntax to smarty. It has however been rewritten alot and is in my experience working great both performance-wise and feature-wise. It is very easy to extend and the by far most inexpandable feature to me is that of template inheritance. This lacks in most PHP templating systems but with Dwoo you can apply the same thinking as with normal class inheritance. Since many elements on your page are the same on all pages and even more in the same section; you can define blocks which you override (think of it as class methods) and for instance create a general section template that inherits the base layout template and then let every section page template inherit this.