61

I'm currently having a discussion about the choice between PHP as a template engine versus a template engine on top of PHP.

What is your choice, and why?

I say why use another template engine when PHP is a template engine itself.

Andrew
  • 18,680
  • 13
  • 103
  • 118
Ikke
  • 99,403
  • 23
  • 97
  • 120
  • 4
    @gregmac Bad link provided (Page Not Found) – nowox Jun 12 '15 at 14:06
  • template engines compile to native php so there is nothing to lose and so much to gain by using a template engine. If you look at any modern template engine like smarty or twig you will see they compile the templates to source php so the output is the same as if you had made the page in php by hand. but the template engines know how to compile the php page better then a person as template engines are maintained by thousands of people. – Patrick W. McMahon Dec 11 '15 at 15:49
  • If you are used to using a template engine, building a template/view with straight PHP will seem tedious and be an eyesore/hard to read. Nevertheless, the correct answer is to just skip the php template engine altogether and go straight to KnockoutJS or AngularJS for your templates and use AJAX for everything. Have fun! – Andrew Jan 11 '17 at 18:16

20 Answers20

49

For template engines:

  1. Added security for end-user customization. Themes in pure PHP have unconstrained ability to cause harm to a user and their installation. Thus a template engine removes that risk, if it is a good one.
  2. Ease of use for non-programmers, such as graphic artists or web designers.

For plain-php:

  1. The speed of pure PHP cannot be matched by any template engine built atop it.
  2. The full power of PHP is available to the output, and not just an interpreted or filtered portion.

I prefer PHP itself if at all possible. And most folks don't want to hack your software by making a custom theme, so it's easy to take a cursory read and investigate its security. That said, I am the "between guy" who does both templating and programming, and even some graphic arts; my skillset differs from a strict programmer and a strict artist/designer.

Robert K
  • 30,064
  • 12
  • 61
  • 79
38

I found that when I introduced Smarty, it was fairly straight forward to get web designers to produce HTML with smarty variables. The folks on the programming team now concentrate on more back-end work, that is, the production of the content of the Smarty variables.

This has shortened the development lifecycle, with work being able to be split between more people, and has ultimately led to better designs.

  • 6
    Thank you for a sensible answer addressing the real benefits of Smarty. It's not about more or better functionality, it's about facilitating good practice! – Nicole Aug 02 '10 at 22:42
  • 5
    There is no match for a good app architecture and good design practices. Template engines provide slower output, another "langueage" to learn. One should not let any data to pass as invalid to a view, and all data should be prepared for a view before it is passed. I don't really get what's all the fuss about these engines. Just another wrapper that will slow down the output. There is no big difference between template engine syntax and php syntax. Also UI guys will handle js code too so i don't see why UI dev should stay away from php. It's just inversion of control. – Tudor May 13 '14 at 16:17
  • @NickC, Templating has the disadvantage that you need to run through all the business logic first before you do output. There's no way to do output on the fly. – Pacerier Jan 27 '15 at 15:59
  • @Pacerier I'm unclear on how that is a disadvantage. I have a hard time thinking of any way in which output on the fly is a good idea. – Nicole Jan 27 '15 at 20:15
  • @NickC, Many cases where that's a good idea. E.g. when you are displaying logs or displaying statuses of page loads and data retrieval. – Pacerier Jan 30 '15 at 19:58
  • @Pacerier I almost always do that by creating business logic functions in advance and creating hooks in the template system to call the functions as needed. – Nicole Feb 05 '15 at 18:37
24

Well, it's just my opinion, but template engines suck. You have to first understand how the template engine is implemented and then learn how to use it. It seems just wasted time, because PHP alone does it best and offers much more flexibility.

rogeriopvl
  • 51,659
  • 8
  • 55
  • 58
  • 3
    Do you still feel this way? Same five years later? I'm having to make some decisions. The only think I do not like using PHP is the braces are hard to get straight sometimes. – johnny Aug 29 '14 at 19:31
  • 2
    @johnny, It's not learning it that will suck up your time. It's learning it **in its entirety** including all its gotchas and edgecases and whatnots that is a waste of time. And if you do not spend the time to learn it in its entirety, you'll **still** lose the time anyway in the end via fixing bugs and security problems. – Pacerier Jan 27 '15 at 16:01
  • 1
    @johnny, like you I have trouble with the brace pairing (granted some of it is due to poor eyesight). To help with that I use alternate syntax. Helps greatly. http://php.net/manual/en/control-structures.alternative-syntax.php – Wranorn Aug 19 '15 at 05:11
  • 3
    I ended up with just regular old PHP. I have yet to find a reason not to use it. As long as it is presentation, what does it matter? – johnny Aug 19 '15 at 14:41
  • @johnny Just use an IDE. – Mārtiņš Briedis Feb 19 '16 at 08:54
  • @MārtiņšBriedis I do not follow. – johnny Feb 19 '16 at 15:35
  • @johnny where do you write your code? – Mārtiņš Briedis Feb 20 '16 at 06:58
14

The following reasons apply:

  • Separating your application into templates with an engine makes your application less vulnerable to halting code errors
  • Using templates can give you greater flexibility in the future when refactoring because the namespace won't be directly built into the application
  • Using templates encourages (forces) developers to keep business logic and code OUT of the presentation layer.
  • Using templates it is easier to mock up datasets and pass them to a template engine and get a preview of what the site will look like with data
cgp
  • 41,026
  • 12
  • 101
  • 131
  • 1
    Yeah, ideally programmers wouldn't care that they have a simplified template, right? I mean, we know php in totality, what do we need a cut down section of it for, that's only useful for non-coders. --- In reality, when you have a stack of sql, php, html, css, and js to deal with, having the verbosity and complexity of html in your php is a major disadvantage, slowing you down and also allowing non-separation of display logic. In the end, templating is pretty much always the way to go. – Kzqai Oct 02 '12 at 19:21
  • 3
    All of these problems wouldn't exist if you design your application the right way from the beginning. Even when you're not using a templating engine you should seperate bussiness logic and presentation logic. Basically, the only thing you need is a dispatcher than can bring your variables from your controller scope to the view scope. – Gladen Aug 04 '14 at 20:47
11

PHP is not a template engine, but a language that can be used to write templates, or template engines. A template engine is not just a language, but also the programming API that allows the scripts to locate, organize templates or assign the data from the script to them. Pure PHP offers you absolutely nothing - it is just a language. Instead, you should take such libraries, as Zend_View in Zend Framework to comparisons (basically, it works exactly in the same way, as Smarty, except that it uses PHP to write templates). You should ask whether you should use a template engine with PHP or something else as a template language.

When it comes to templating languages themselves, then well... ordinary loops and conditions are enough to write templates, but this "enough" does not mean that it is easy, comfortable, efficient or flexible. PHP does not offer anything special for template designers, but many "templating languages" (like Smarty) provide just a limited subset of PHP, so I'm not surprised that programmers choose PHP. At least they can write functions and use OOP which is too massive for this (in my opinion), but does work and really helps.

The point is that custom templating languages are not limited with PHP drawbacks, but their designers unsually do not see it, claiming that "displaying variables and a loop is enough". The possible areas, where templating languages could be much more effective:

  • Form displaying and rendering (I haven't seen any framework with PHP as a templating language that provided an easy, flexible and generic system for customizing the form look).
  • Understanding the HTML/XML document structure.
  • Automatic XSS injection filters.
  • Solving various common problems in the presentation layer (i.e. customizing the look of the pagination system, displaying the data in columns etc.)
  • Template portability and true separation of the application logic and implementation details from the templates.

Examples of templating languages that follow this way are mentioned above PHPTAL and Open Power Template 2. Some similar ideas can be also found in TinyButStrong, but unfortunately this template engine is extremely slow.

Zyx
  • 485
  • 3
  • 8
  • +1 for the need to prevent XSS. for every variable is horrible, but almost what's necessary, and even a wrapper function isn't nearly as good as readable & scannable as {{name}}. – Kzqai Oct 02 '12 at 19:24
  • 5
    @Zyx, PHP is a language that allows you to do things that template engines do. It is a tool that can be used as a template engine, In other words, it **is** a template engine. – Pacerier Jan 27 '15 at 16:04
10

Using a template engine can be helpful if you have a non-programmer doing the templates. In many cases, the simplified template language can be easier for a non-programmer to pick up than PHP itself.

That said, I find myself moving away from using templates when it's just me (or me and other developers).

Mark Biek
  • 146,731
  • 54
  • 156
  • 201
6

PHP as template engine will not complain when you mix up your HTML syntax. It will let you forget to close tags, mis-nest them, etc.

PHP's output is not escaped by default, so unless you remember to rigorously add htmlspecialchars() everywhere, your site will have HTML injection (XSS) vulnerabilities.

<p>Hello <?= $name ?></b>
<!-- Simple template full of errors -->

These problems are much worse when you try to generate XHTML properly. It's not that you can't do that with plain PHP - of course you can - but that requires more effort and diligence.

That's why my recommendation is PHPTAL. OPT2 is OK too.

Kornel
  • 97,764
  • 37
  • 219
  • 309
5

Savant is what you are looking for. Its a nice wrapper class that allows you to use the PHP operators in your templates instead of interpreting an new template language on top of PHP.

Pros:

It makes sense not to add extra work to the system.
No learning curve for developers If you everyone is disciplined then this is the way to go. (Savant)

Cons:

Although Savant encourages you to separate properly it doesn't force the developer to separate business logic from development code. I have a rule that should never be broken. You can only output variables, use conditions and loops in your templates. You must never allow a developer to create variables in the template. Unfortunately developers never seem to do this no matter how many times you tell them. So, using a engine like Smarty then becomes worth it because the developers are forced to completely keep business and design apart.

If I'm doing a project for myself or one that doesn't have many developers I tend to use Savant. If its a project that is much bigger than just me then in the Architecture I'll go for something like Smarty.

Either way, the separation in the code is important weather you use Savant or Smarty. I'm sure there are other good options out there too.

Derek Organ
  • 8,323
  • 17
  • 56
  • 75
5

PHP is perfectly suitable for most tasks, but a templating engine can help a project to scale more easily.

Off the shelf ones like Smarty or PHPTAL are great if you do not have the time to roll your own (and do not require more than they offer). Also, you can fairly easily replace/modify them with your own implementation later on if you find you need something more specialised.

I've personally had a good experience with PHPTAL, primarily because it keeps out of your way and is simple.

Nazariy
  • 6,028
  • 5
  • 37
  • 61
seanhodges
  • 17,426
  • 15
  • 71
  • 93
3

The following article sum-up the different points of view about Template Engines for PHP.

Doing PHP templates of the third kind http://www.tinybutstrong.com/article_3rd_kind.html

Skrol29
  • 5,402
  • 1
  • 20
  • 25
  • wysiwyg... seriously? Is this a step backwards? – Pacerier Jan 27 '15 at 16:07
  • Wysiwyg is so everywhere that it is not mentioned anymore. Nevertheless, some design tools are still not Wysiwyg. Specially for HTML pages: 50% of the developers use visual design editors (wysiwyg), while 50% of the developers prefer text editors (not wysiwyg). – Skrol29 Feb 23 '15 at 10:02
3

I found building a light-weight template engine in PHP worked best for us. Allows for good code separation, and our graphic designer could learn a few simple rules to follow, but most writes HTML/CSS not PHP. I can write the heavy lifting code without having the think much about the interface.

acrosman
  • 12,814
  • 10
  • 39
  • 55
2

My choice for any new project would probably be to simply use the templating capabilities of PHP, possibly in combination with an MVC framework, instead of using another templating engine. After all, for code simplicity or cleanliness of separation, it doesn't really matter whether you have {$myVar} or <?= $myVar ?> in your code. More complex templating features such as conditions, loops, or backend-technologies such as caching can be handled just as well (or better) by PHP or the MVC framework.

I have used both approaches (with and without a templating engine), but only in personal projects, never in team projects, so perhaps there are compelling arguments for the use of a templating engine in such a setting.

Daan
  • 6,952
  • 4
  • 29
  • 36
1

PHP coding features evolved, designing feature are the same, that's why if you work in a team with designers and developer you need a template engine to parallelize the job, and let the designers work with HTML.

My personal choice is Raintpl, because is lightweight, friendly and fast here a benchmark can help you choose (also smarty and savant are nice!):

http://www.raintpl.com/PHP-Template-Engines-Speed-Test/

Feulf
  • 166
  • 2
  • 6
1

I don't know whether it is due VirtueMart, Joomla or the concept of templates in PHP, but adjusting VirtueMart to your own graphic theme is PURE HELL. (I'm not talking about plain CSS-styling.)

  • That's because Virtuemart is one of the worst-coded applications I've ever come across. VM doesn't really have a templating system, the "templates" are just a mess of functions, inline PHP code and invalid HTML. – DisgruntledGoat Jul 27 '09 at 16:18
1

PHP isn't a templating engine its a scripting language.

Toby Allen
  • 10,997
  • 11
  • 73
  • 124
0

Since I asked this question, I have came across mustache. This is a logic-less template language.

So this is not the same as PHP or smarty where you have the possibility to add all sorts of logic to you template, but forces you to keep all the logic in something like view models.

This seems to me a better option then switching to template language where logic is still possible.

Ikke
  • 99,403
  • 23
  • 97
  • 120
  • View models which then quickly become tightly coupled to the mustache template and therefore very hard to reuse. A view is not 'logic-less', there is nothing wrong with having view logic in view templates, it's supposed to be there! – Leven Sep 30 '13 at 19:06
  • I like my views clean with as little logic in them as possible. That way they are easy to follow. The benefit for that is that there is very little functionality in your views that actually needs to be tested. View models should be tied to the view, they come as a couple. The combination of both is what can be reused. – Ikke Sep 30 '13 at 19:47
0

I wrote a blog post about this recently.

For the security sake alone, definitely use a templating engine ( Twig is secure ).

A good templating engine (such as Twig) offers:

  • Security (most important what so ever )
  • Not verbose (like php)
  • More templating features
Petter Kjelkenes
  • 1,605
  • 1
  • 19
  • 25
0

currently, it the most faster and easier to use. After making a suite of benchmark on PHP templates engines, twig comes in the second place just after native php language.

Artjom B.
  • 61,146
  • 24
  • 125
  • 222
skonsoft
  • 1,786
  • 5
  • 22
  • 43
0

I use a template engine in PHP because I prefer to have a high degree of separation between business logic and presentation logic. Web programming is much easier when your PHP (or any other programming language) doesn't have HTML scattered throughout. This is Microsoft's code behind is so popular.

I use a template engine called KudzuPHP. It is a port of my KudzuASP for Classic ASP. It differs from many template engines in that the code that hosts the business rules and logic becomes an event handler for the template engine after the template engine is invoked. This approach allows you to modify the templates (moving large blocks of presentation) without requiring you to modify the code of the PHP code.

KudzuPHP contains it's own library system and writing new extension tags and libraries is very easy.

You can find KudzuPHP here: http://www.andrewfriedl.com/downloads/ If you want a version embedded in a Wordpress plugin that allows you to code against the Wordpress API without PHP go top Wordpress.org and search the plugins for "Kazoo".

Andrew
  • 307
  • 3
  • 10
0

If I had to spend the time learning a standalone template engine, I would rather spend the time learning a Framework instead. My choice is to go with Zend Framework, which when implemented using an MVC approach, provides you with the power of the framework, along with the native templating capability of PHP itself.

PHPexperts.ca
  • 209
  • 1
  • 4
  • 4
    Time spent on learning new template language is miniscule compared to time you'll spend writing and debugging those templates, so I think it's a good time investment. – Kornel May 25 '09 at 20:54
  • you need much more time to learn a framewrok than to learn a template engine – Sameera Kumarasingha May 06 '14 at 13:03