Loop through custom template hooking thing

Question

I am building a template system for emailing people that currently works in the format of:

$array['key1'] = "text";
$array['key2'] = "more text";

<!--key1--> // replaced with *text*
<!--key2--> // replaced with *more text*

For this particular project I have a nested array with this kind of structure:

$array['object1']['nest1']['key1'] = "text";
$array['object2']['next1']['key1'] = "more text";

<!--[object1][nest1][key1]--> // replaced with *text*
<!--[object2][nest1][key1]--> // replaced with *more text*

The  would be placed inside a HTML file which is then loaded into a string. The top example shows that I am replacing the comments with the data.

What would be the best way to do this in PHP? I thought I could loop through the arrays but then I just lost my trail of thought and got lost in what I was doing!

All help would be appreciated!! Thanks

So, you want to replace array-like parts from a string with the content in the array? — Martti Laine, May 01 '10 at 12:46
possible duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2171963/php-array-as-variable-name — outis, May 01 '10 at 13:21
no because thats for more php, this is for iterating over a file (or string) to replace the text. — tarnfeld, May 01 '10 at 13:23
no matter what, you need to extract the text-to-replace from the template file. Once you do that, it's the same problem. See if any answers you get differ significantly from the answers for that question. — outis, May 01 '10 at 13:44

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered May 01 '10 at 13:42

Well, using eval is dangerous, but if all the code ran though it is by you, it won't hurt. You can try this:

<?php

$array['object1']['nest1']['key1'] = "text";
$array['object2']['nest1']['key1'] = "more text";

$str = "sadfadsfjäadsföljadsölf
<!-- ['object2']['nest1']['key1'] -->
asdföadsjlf";

$split = explode('
',$str); // This sucks, you can use \n to detect line-breaks. Doesn't work that way in this example

foreach($split as $key => $value) {
    if(preg_match('/\<\!\-\- (\[.+\]) \-\-\>/e',$value,$matches)) {
    eval("echo \$array".$matches[1].";");
    echo "\n";
} else {
    echo $value."\n";
}
}

?>

Pretty weird way, but I couldn't figure out any clearer.

"If eval() is the answer, you're almost certainly asking the wrong question." — outis, May 01 '10 at 13:48
That's what I mean with my first line, but this is the clearest way to do this I think. — Martti Laine, May 01 '10 at 13:52

Loop through custom template hooking thing

1 Answers1