1 | QUESTION INDEX |
---|
2 | -------------- |
---|
3 | |
---|
4 | GENERAL |
---|
5 | |
---|
6 | Q: What is Smarty? |
---|
7 | Q: What's the difference between Smarty and other template engines? |
---|
8 | Q: What do you mean "Compiled PHP Scripts" ? |
---|
9 | Q: Why can't I just use PHPA (http://php-accelerator.co.uk) or Zend Cache? |
---|
10 | Q: Why does smarty have a built in cache? Wouldn't it be better to handle this |
---|
11 | in a separate class? |
---|
12 | Q: Is Smarty faster than <insert other PHP template engine>? |
---|
13 | Q: How can I be sure to get the best performance from Smarty? |
---|
14 | Q: Do you have a mailing list? |
---|
15 | Q: Can you change the mailing list so reply-to sends to the list and not the |
---|
16 | user? |
---|
17 | |
---|
18 | TROUBLESHOOTING |
---|
19 | |
---|
20 | Q: Smarty doesn't work. |
---|
21 | Q: I get the following error when running Smarty: |
---|
22 | Warning: Smarty error: problem creating directory "templates_c/239/239105369" |
---|
23 | in /path/to/Smarty.class.php on line 542 |
---|
24 | Q: I get the following error when running Smarty: |
---|
25 | Warning: Wrong parameter count for preg_replace() in |
---|
26 | Smarty.class.php on line 371 |
---|
27 | Q: I get this error when passing variables to {include}: |
---|
28 | Fatal error: Call to undefined function: get_defined_vars() in |
---|
29 | /path/to/Smarty/templates_c/index.tpl.php on line 8 |
---|
30 | Q: I get PHP errors in my {if} tag logic. |
---|
31 | Q: I'm changing my php code and/or templates, and my results are not getting |
---|
32 | updated. |
---|
33 | Q: I'm running Windows 2000 and I get blank content. My compiled PHP files are |
---|
34 | also zero length. |
---|
35 | Q: The template goes into an infinite loop when I include included templates |
---|
36 | that pass local variables |
---|
37 | Q: Javascript is causing Smarty errors in my templates. |
---|
38 | Q: I get "SAFE MODE Restriction in effect. ..."-errors when running smarty. |
---|
39 | |
---|
40 | MISC |
---|
41 | |
---|
42 | Q: Can I use Macromedia's Dreamweaver to edit my templates? |
---|
43 | Q: Dreamweaver is urlencoding the template delimiters when they are in a SRC or |
---|
44 | HREF link. How do I get around this? |
---|
45 | |
---|
46 | HOWTO |
---|
47 | |
---|
48 | Q: How do I generate different cache files per template based on arguments |
---|
49 | passed to the page? |
---|
50 | Q: How do I pass a template variable as a parameter? {function param={$varname}} |
---|
51 | does not work. |
---|
52 | Q: How do I include cached template(s) within a non-cached template? |
---|
53 | |
---|
54 | |
---|
55 | GENERAL |
---|
56 | ------- |
---|
57 | |
---|
58 | Q: What is Smarty? |
---|
59 | A: Smarty is a template engine for PHP... but be aware this isn't just another |
---|
60 | PHP template engine. It's much more than that. |
---|
61 | |
---|
62 | Q: What's the difference between Smarty and other template engines? |
---|
63 | A: Most other template engines for PHP provide basic variable substitution and |
---|
64 | dynamic block functionality. Smarty takes a step further to be a "smart" |
---|
65 | template engine, adding features such as configuration files, template |
---|
66 | functions, variable modifiers (see the docs!) and making all of this |
---|
67 | functionality as easy as possible to use for both programmers and template |
---|
68 | designers. Smarty also compiles the templates into PHP scripts, eliminating |
---|
69 | the need to parse the templates on every invocation, making Smarty extremely |
---|
70 | scalable and manageable for large application needs. |
---|
71 | |
---|
72 | Q: What do you mean "Compiled PHP Scripts" ? |
---|
73 | A: Smarty reads the template files and creates PHP scripts from them. Once |
---|
74 | these PHP scripts are created, Smarty executes these, never having to parse |
---|
75 | the template files again. If you change a template file, Smarty will |
---|
76 | recreate the PHP script for it. All this is done automatically by Smarty. |
---|
77 | Template designers never need to mess with the generated PHP scripts or even |
---|
78 | know of their existance. (NOTE: you can turn off this compile checking step |
---|
79 | in Smarty for increased performance.) |
---|
80 | |
---|
81 | Q: Why can't I just use PHPA (http://php-accelerator.co.uk) or Zend Cache? |
---|
82 | A: You certainly can, and we highly recommend it! What PHPA does is caches |
---|
83 | compiled bytecode of your PHP scripts in shared memory or in a file. This |
---|
84 | speeds up server response and saves the compilation step. Smarty creates PHP |
---|
85 | scripts, which PHPA will cache nicely. Now, Smarty's built-in cache is |
---|
86 | something completely different. It caches the _output_ of the template |
---|
87 | contents. For example, if you have a template that requires several database |
---|
88 | queries, Smarty can cache this output, saving the need to call the database |
---|
89 | every time. Smarty and PHPA (or Zend Cache) complement each other nicely. If |
---|
90 | performance is of the utmost importance, we would recommend using one of |
---|
91 | these with any PHP application, using Smarty or not. As you can see in the |
---|
92 | benchmarks, Smartys performance _really_ excels in combination with a PHP |
---|
93 | accelerator. |
---|
94 | |
---|
95 | Q: Why does Smarty have a built in cache? Wouldn't it be better to handle this |
---|
96 | in a separate class? |
---|
97 | A: Smarty's caching functionality is tightly integrated with the template |
---|
98 | engine, making it quite a bit more flexible than a simple caching wrapper. |
---|
99 | For instance, you can cache select portions of a template page. Let's say |
---|
100 | you have a polling box on your site. With Smarty, you can leave the poll |
---|
101 | dynamic and cache the rest of the page. You can also pass templates |
---|
102 | multiple cache ids, meaning that a template can have several caches |
---|
103 | depending on URL, cookies, etc. |
---|
104 | |
---|
105 | Q: Is Smarty faster than <insert other PHP template engine>? |
---|
106 | A: See the benchmark page for some performance comparisons. Smarty's approach |
---|
107 | to templates is a bit different from some languages: it compiles templates |
---|
108 | into PHP scripts instead of parsing them on each invocation. This usually |
---|
109 | results in great performance gains, especially with complex templates. |
---|
110 | Coupled with the built-in caching of Smarty templates, the performance is |
---|
111 | outstanding. |
---|
112 | |
---|
113 | Q: How can I be sure to get the best performance from Smarty? |
---|
114 | A: Be sure you set $compile_check=false once your templates are initially |
---|
115 | compiled. This will skip the unneeded step of testing if the template has |
---|
116 | changed since it was last compiled. If you have complex pages that don't |
---|
117 | change too often, turn on the caching engine and adjust your application so |
---|
118 | it doesn't do unnecessary work (like db calls) if a cached page is |
---|
119 | available. See the documentation for examples. |
---|
120 | |
---|
121 | Q: Do you have a mailing list? |
---|
122 | A: We have a few mailing lists. "general" for you to share your ideas or ask |
---|
123 | questions, "dev" for those interested in the development efforts of Smarty, |
---|
124 | and "cvs" for those that would like to track the updates made in the cvs |
---|
125 | repository. |
---|
126 | |
---|
127 | send a blank e-mail message to: |
---|
128 | smarty-general-subscribe@lists.php.net (subscribe to the general list) |
---|
129 | smarty-general-unsubscribe@lists.php.net (unsubscribe from the general list) |
---|
130 | smarty-general-digest-subscribe@lists.php.net (subscribe to digest) |
---|
131 | smarty-general-digest-unsubscribe@lists.php.net (unsubscribe from digest) |
---|
132 | smarty-dev-subscribe@lists.php.net (subscribe to the dev list) |
---|
133 | smarty-dev-unsubscribe@lists.php.net (unsubscribe from the dev list) |
---|
134 | smarty-cvs-subscribe@lists.php.net (subscribe to the cvs list) |
---|
135 | smarty-cvs-unsubscribe@lists.php.net (unsubscribe from the cvs list) |
---|
136 | You can also browse the mailing list archives at |
---|
137 | http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=smarty&r=1&w=2 |
---|
138 | |
---|
139 | |
---|
140 | |
---|
141 | Q: Can you change the mailing list so Reply-To sends to the list and not the |
---|
142 | user? |
---|
143 | A: Yes we could, but no we won't. Use "Reply-All" in your e-mail client to send |
---|
144 | to the list. http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html |
---|
145 | |
---|
146 | TROUBLESHOOTING |
---|
147 | --------------- |
---|
148 | |
---|
149 | Q: Smarty doesn't work. |
---|
150 | A: You must be using PHP 4.0.6 or later if you use any version of Smarty |
---|
151 | past 2.0.1. Read the BUGS file for more info. |
---|
152 | |
---|
153 | Q: I get the following error when running Smarty: |
---|
154 | Warning: Smarty error: problem creating directory "templates_c/239/239105369" |
---|
155 | in /path/to/Smarty.class.php on line 542 |
---|
156 | A: Your web server user does not have permission to write to the templates_c |
---|
157 | directory, or is unable to create the templates_c directory. Be sure the |
---|
158 | templates_c directory exists in the location defined in Smarty.class.php, |
---|
159 | and the web server user can write to it. If you do not know the web server |
---|
160 | user, chmod 777 the templates_c directory, reload the page, then check the |
---|
161 | file ownership of the files created in templates_c. Or, you can check the |
---|
162 | httpd.conf (usually in /usr/local/apache/conf) file for this setting: |
---|
163 | User nobody |
---|
164 | Group nobody |
---|
165 | |
---|
166 | Q: I get the following error when running Smarty: Warning: Wrong parameter |
---|
167 | count for preg_replace() in Smarty.class.php on line 371 |
---|
168 | A: preg_replace had a parameter added in PHP 4.0.2 that Smarty |
---|
169 | requires. Upgrade to at least 4.0.6 to fix all known PHP issues with |
---|
170 | Smarty. |
---|
171 | |
---|
172 | Q: I get this error when passing variables to {include}: |
---|
173 | Fatal error: Call to undefined function: get_defined_vars() in |
---|
174 | /path/to/Smarty/templates_c/index.tpl.php on line 8 |
---|
175 | A: get_defined_vars() was added to PHP 4.0.4. If you plan on passing |
---|
176 | variables to included templates, you will need PHP 4.0.6 or later. |
---|
177 | |
---|
178 | Q: I get PHP errors in my {if} tag logic. |
---|
179 | A: All conditional qualifiers must be separated by spaces. This syntax will not |
---|
180 | work: {if $name=="Wilma"} You must instead do this: {if $name == "Wilma"}. |
---|
181 | The reason for this is syntax ambiguity. Both "==" and "eq" are equivalent |
---|
182 | in the template parser, so something like {if $nameeq"Wilma"} wouldn't be |
---|
183 | parsable by the tokenizer. |
---|
184 | |
---|
185 | Q: I'm changing my php code and/or templates, and my results are not getting |
---|
186 | updated. |
---|
187 | A: This may be the result of your compile or cache settings. If you are |
---|
188 | changing your php code, your templates will not necessarily get recompiled |
---|
189 | to reflect the changes. Use $force_compile during develpment to avoid these |
---|
190 | situations. Also turn off caching during development when you aren't |
---|
191 | specifically testing it. You can also remove everything from your |
---|
192 | compile_dir and cache_dir and reload the page to be sure everything gets |
---|
193 | regenerated. |
---|
194 | |
---|
195 | Q: I'm running Windows 2000 and I get blank content. My compiled PHP files are |
---|
196 | also zero length. |
---|
197 | A: There seems to be a problem with some W2k machines and exclusive file |
---|
198 | locking. Comment out the flock() call in _write_file to get around this, |
---|
199 | although be aware this could possibly cause a problem with simultaneous |
---|
200 | writes to a file, especially with caching turned on. NOTE: As of Smarty |
---|
201 | 1.4.0, a workaround was put in place that should solve this. |
---|
202 | |
---|
203 | Q: The template goes into an infinite loop when I include included templates |
---|
204 | that pass local variables |
---|
205 | A: This was fixed in 1.3.2 (new global attribute) |
---|
206 | |
---|
207 | Q: Javascript is causing Smarty errors in my templates. |
---|
208 | A: Surround your javascript with {literal}{/literal} tags. See the docs. |
---|
209 | |
---|
210 | Q: I get "SAFE MODE Restriction in effect. ..."-errors when running smarty. |
---|
211 | A: Use $smarty->use_sub_dirs = false when running php in safe mode. |
---|
212 | |
---|
213 | MISC |
---|
214 | ---- |
---|
215 | |
---|
216 | Q: Can I use Macromedia's Dreamweaver to edit my templates? |
---|
217 | A: Certainly. You might want to change your tag delimiters from {} to something |
---|
218 | that resembles valid HTML, like <!--{ }--> or <{ }> or something similar. |
---|
219 | This way the editor won't view the template tags as errors. |
---|
220 | |
---|
221 | Q: Dreamweaver is urlencoding the template delimiters when they are in a SRC or |
---|
222 | HREF link. How do I get around this? |
---|
223 | A: In Edit - Properties - Rewrite HTML you can specify if Dreamweaver should |
---|
224 | change special letters to %-equivalent or not. The default is on which |
---|
225 | produces this error. |
---|
226 | |
---|
227 | HOWTO |
---|
228 | ----- |
---|
229 | |
---|
230 | Q: How do I generate different cache files per template based on arguments |
---|
231 | passed to the page? |
---|
232 | A: Use your $REQUEST_URI as the cache_id when fetching the page: |
---|
233 | |
---|
234 | global $REQUEST_URI; // if not already present |
---|
235 | $smarty->display('index.tpl',$REQUEST_URI); |
---|
236 | |
---|
237 | This will create a separate cache file for each unique URL when you call |
---|
238 | index.tpl. See the documentation for display() and fetch() |
---|
239 | |
---|
240 | Q: How do I pass a template variable as a parameter? {function param={$varname}} |
---|
241 | does not work. |
---|
242 | A: {function param=$varname} (You cannot nest template delimiters.) |
---|
243 | |
---|
244 | Q: How do I include cached template(s) within a non-cached template? |
---|
245 | A: One way to do it: |
---|
246 | |
---|
247 | $smarty->caching = true; |
---|
248 | $tpl1 = $smarty->fetch("internal1.tpl"); |
---|
249 | $tpl2 = $smarty->fetch("internal2.tpl"); |
---|
250 | $tpl3 = $smarty->fetch("internal3.tpl"); |
---|
251 | |
---|
252 | $smarty->assign("tpl1_contents",$tpl1); |
---|
253 | $smarty->assign("tpl2_contents",$tpl2); |
---|
254 | $smarty->assign("tpl3_contents",$tpl3); |
---|
255 | |
---|
256 | $smarty->caching = false; |
---|
257 | $smarty->display('index.tpl'); |
---|
258 | |
---|
259 | index.tpl |
---|
260 | --------- |
---|
261 | |
---|
262 | <table> |
---|
263 | <tr> |
---|
264 | <td>{$tpl1_contents}</td> |
---|
265 | <td>{$tpl2_contents}</td> |
---|
266 | <td>{$tpl3_contents}</td> |
---|
267 | </tr> |
---|
268 | </table> |
---|
269 | |
---|
270 | |
---|
271 | |
---|
272 | |
---|
273 | Another approach: |
---|
274 | |
---|
275 | You could write a custom insert function to fetch your internal |
---|
276 | templates: |
---|
277 | |
---|
278 | <table> |
---|
279 | <tr> |
---|
280 | <td>{insert name=fetch_tpl tpl="internal1.tpl"}</td> |
---|
281 | <td>{insert name=fetch_tpl tpl="internal2.tpl"}</td> |
---|
282 | <td>{insert name=fetch_tpl tpl="internal3.tpl"}</td> |
---|
283 | </tr> |
---|
284 | </table> |
---|