[news.eclipse.technology.phoenix] Better template.php ?

[Michal Chmielewski <michal.chmielewski@xxxxxxxxxx>]

So ... the basic template for generating pages in projects using this 
php Phoenix magic looks like this:

--- snip -----
<?php  ## The "require" magic is "off-screen"

  # Begin: page-specific settings.  Change these.
  $pageTitle = "Sample Phoenix web page using the new templates";
  $pageKeywords = "Type, page, keywords, here";
  $pageAuthor = "Type your name here";
	
  # Add page-specific Nav bars here
  # $Nav->addCustomNav("My Link", "mypage.php", "_self", 3);
  # $Nav->addCustomNav("Google", "http://www.google.com/";, "_blank", 3);
		
  # Paste your HTML content between the EOHTML markers!	
  $html = <<<EOHTML

html goes here.

EOHTML;

  # Generate the web page
  $App->generatePage($theme, $Menu, $Nav, $pageAuthor, $pageKeywords,
       $pageTitle, $html);
?>
--- snip -----


I am not very familiar with PHP but the $html = <<< EOHTML line is 
really making the HTML content be buried in the PHP code. This is bad 
for 2 reasons:

1) I can't use simple PHP include(file) directive to include content 
that I may need in more then 1 place.
2) The PHPEclipse editor syntax highlighting is completely shot for the 
HTML that is buried in the PHP code.

I read a little about output buffering in PHP and this template seems 
more logical to me and fixes these 2 issues.

Changes have the <-- comment next to them

--- snip -----
<?php  ## The require magic is "off-screen"
  ob_start();  # <-- turns on buffering
  # Begin: page-specific settings.  Change these.
  $pageTitle = "Sample Phoenix web page using the new templates";
  $pageKeywords = "Type, page, keywords, here";
  $pageAuthor = "Type your name here";
	
  # Add page-specific Nav bars here
  # $Nav->addCustomNav("My Link", "mypage.php", "_self", 3);
  # $Nav->addCustomNav("Google", "http://www.google.com/";, "_blank", 3);
  # <-- now close the PHP code section
?>

HTML goes here. PHPEclipse will nicely hilite the syntax because now it 
knows that it is in the "html" area and give me HTML templates as I need 
them via code assist.

You can do also things like <?= $pageAuthor ?> which are PHP escapes for 
expressions.

You can also include pages such as ...
 <?php include("some.page.html") ?>

<?php
  # Generate the web page.
  # <-- ob_get_clean() will get the currently produced output which
  # <-- sits in the buffer and erase the buffer so that
  # <-- App->generatePage() can do the chrome around the page content
  #
  $App->generatePage($theme, $Menu, $Nav, $pageAuthor, $pageKeywords,
     $pageTitle, ob_get_clean() );
?>
--- snip -----

This is working locally, on local.eclipe.org installation, and I presume 
that it should work on Eclipse.org once checked in. However, there may 
be some php configuration parameters that may not be set in the same way.

Anything that I am missing ?

-michal