JV’s Power Tips for PHP (1) - Using Objects to Store Multiple Output Values

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Another reason why this is useful is that it files your output variables into one (or a few) objects. It also means that in our function get_template() we can get rid of this:

<?php
    // etc.
    
    // Make sure that all global variables are available to this functions..
    foreach ( $GLOBALS as $key => $val )
    {
      global ${$key};  
    }

    // etc.

?>

...which, in truth, is a little costly and replace it with this:

<?php
    // etc.
    
    // We only need to make the object $output global to this function..
    global $output;

    // etc.

?>

Going back to our table template. It would look like this:

<table>
  <tr>
    <td>
      $output->dynamic_text
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Of course, you don’t have to write your own template system if you don’t want to. I just happen to be a control freak who likes to know the structure of all the code I use. There are plenty of pre-built template systems out there that can save you hours of coding (e.g. Smarty). Even so, the principle is still the same:

1. Don’t break out of PHP tags.
2. Abstract HTML content from programming logic.

Next: Conclusion >>
 

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