Smarty

[fortuity]

My site organization requires template files in the same directories as php files. There are multiple directories and some pages have the same names.

/news :
-----------
/news/index.php
/news/index.tpl

/about :
-----------
/about/index.php
/about/index.tpl

Each index.php file includes the same prepend.php file which instantiates Smarty and sets a single shared template compile directory:

/includes/prepend.php:
$smarty = new Smarty();
$smarty->compile_dir = '/var/www.sitename.com/compile/';

An index.php file looks like this:
define('APP_PATH', dirname(dirname(__FILE__)) . '/includes/');
require_once(APP_PATH.'prepend.php');
$smarty->assign('something', 'something');
$smarty->display('index.tpl.html');

Experienced Smarty users will immediately recognize that my compiled templates are colliding because they share the same names in a shared compile directory. If I visit /news/index.php and then /about/index.php I only ever see the page generated for /news/index.php.

Will my problem be resolved if I set
$smarty->use_sub_dirs=true ?

Or is there another way I can force Smarty to generate compiled templates in separate subdirectories? I'd like Smarty to know that templates with the same name are in different directories and create compiled template files in corresponding subdirectories.

[boots]

hmm. Why do I think that this is only true if the path/name collide (not just the name)?? That would only occur if you are using multiple template_dirs to the same path or are using some sort of template_dir array. In either case, you need to have more compile dirs.

[fortuity]

I asked,

> Will my problem be resolved if I set
> $smarty->use_sub_dirs=true ?

I experimented and "use_sub_dirs=true" makes no difference in this situation (safe mode is off). I still get template collisions. The collisions go away if I set "$smarty->force_compile=true" but that's not what I want for deployment.

boots said,

> That would only occur if you are using multiple template_dirs to the same path

Yes, I am. Each directory (about/, admin/, news/) contains templates and the prepend file specifies one common compile directory.

> you need to have more compile dirs

Apparently Smarty's design requires this. For each directory that contains templates I have to explicitly specify (and create and set writable) a corresponding template_compile directory. I was hoping to only have to specify/mkdir/chmod a single compile directory and have Smarty do the work of creating subdirectories to match each template directory as needed. Unless someone knows otherwise it appears this can't be done.

Just to explain my site's design requirements, the idea of one big template directory is undesirable. The site is segregated with different directories to match its information architecture and page designers need to find the template file that builds a page in the directory that matches the URL seen in the browser (adjacent to the php file for the page).

It seems it's best if I let Smarty use the default compile_dir (it will look for a "templates_c" subdirectory in any directory that contains a template).

However, the Smarty "multiple compile directories" requirement makes it complicated for anyone to download and install the site because I have to ask them to search for all the "templates_c" subdirectories and chown or chmod each one. I was hoping they could just find one compile directory and chmod that.

Anyone know of a way to use multiple template_dirs and a single compile directory?

[messju]

[fortuity]

[fortuity]

[boots]

If you have a module approach like you are showing, then it makes sense to mix. The consequence is that your code files are more tightly bound to your template files and vice-versa. If you have any sort of generalized templates (for example, which can match more than one code file) or if your app/design teams or more segregated, then not mixing makes sense to me.

Your solution is simple and clever. FYI, it should be possible for you to write a custom resource and set the default resource type to it to achieve the same thing transparently (ie. delegate the path location task to the resource).

[fortuity]

Thanks for the help and the thoughtful comments. I'm happy Smarty imposes no inherent limitations on this approach.

[stanhecht]

Big thank you for this solution. I'm developing an intranet site with a lot of pages in a directory tree. I was trying to figure out how to put the php files and related template files in the same directory. Tried a few things, with no luck, until I found this post.

My assorted common templates (header, footer, etc) stay in a single templates directory:

define('SMARTY_TEMPLATE_DIR', ROOT_DIR.'templates');
$smarty->template_dir = SMARTY_TEMPLATE_DIR;

As for the main page templates, I put them in the same directory as their php pages and then display them using dirname(__FILE__), as suggested earlier in this thread.

So far, seems to work well. Thanks again.