README

A fast, file-based template engine for PHP — modernized for PHP 7.4–8.4.

Originally a PHP3 port (1999, CDI) of the Perl module CGI::FastTemplate by Jason Moore. Version 1.7.0 brings the classic 1.6.2 codebase up to date: full PHP 8.x compatibility, bug fixes, security hardening and a major performance overhaul — without breaking the public API.

require 'class.FastTemplate.php';

$tpl = new FastTemplate('./templates');
$tpl->define('main', 'main.html');
$tpl->assign('NAME', 'World');
$tpl->parse('MAIN', 'main');
$tpl->FastPrint('MAIN');

Features

Variable interpolation — {NAME} placeholders, including nested values
Conditional blocks —  ...  ... 
Dynamic blocks — repeating rows (BEGIN DYNAMIC BLOCK) for loops/DB results
Compound & append parsing — nest templates, parse('MAIN', '.row') append mode
Object tags — {OBJ.method}, {OBJ.method("arg")} calls into your objects
SSI-style includes — 
Pattern auto-assign — setPattern('LANG_') maps constants/globals by prefix
pre_filter — regex transform applied before parsing
Page caching — .ft cache files with configurable TTL
Strict mode — warns about unresolved {VAR}s instead of stripping them
Zero dependencies — one file, no composer required

Requirements

PHP 7.4 – 8.4 (tested on 7.4; static-audited for 8.x)
No extensions beyond core PHP

Installation

Drop class.FastTemplate.php into your project:

require '/path/to/class.FastTemplate.php';
$tpl = new FastTemplate('/path/to/templates');

Template syntax

<h1>{TITLE}</h1>                          <!-- variable -->
<p>{USER.name}</p>                        <!-- object method -->
<p>{USER.greet("bob")}</p>                <!-- object method w/ args -->

<!-- IFDEF: SHOW_EXTRA -->                <!-- if $SHOW_EXTRA is set/truthy -->
  <p>Extra: {EXTRA}</p>
<!-- ELSE -->
  <p>Nothing extra</p>
<!-- ENDIF -->

<!-- IFNDEF: HIDDEN -->                   <!-- if not defined -->
  <p>Visible</p>
<!-- ENDIF -->

<!-- #include file="header.html" -->      <!-- SSI-style include -->

<table>
<!-- BEGIN DYNAMIC BLOCK: row -->          <!-- repeated via .row appends -->
  <tr><td>{N}</td></tr>
<!-- END DYNAMIC BLOCK: row -->
</table>

API quick reference

Method	Purpose
`define($handle, $file)` / `define(array)`	map handles to template files
`define_dynamic($macro, $parent)`	register a dynamic block
`assign($key, $val)` / `assign(array)`	assign variables
`parse($out, $handle)`	parse template into `$out`
`parse($out, '.handle')`	append-parse (for loops)
`parse($out, array(...))`	compound parse
`fetch($out)` / `FastPrint($out)` / `FastWrite($out, $file)`	output
`parse_and_return($handle)`	parse + trimmed result
`strict()` / `no_strict()`	unresolved-var warnings
`pre_filter($pattern, $replace)`	pre-parse regex filter
`setPattern($prefix, $type)`	auto-assign constants (1) / globals (0)
`clear*()`	`clear`, `clear_parse`, `clear_tpl`, `clear_define`, `clear_assign`, `clear_dynamic`, `clear_all`
`USE_CACHE($f)`, `setCacheTime($s)`, `DELETE_CACHE()`	caching

New in 1.7.0

PHP 7.4–8.4 compatibility

Removed each(), ereg(), split(), mysql_escape_string(), get_magic_quotes_gpc(), curly-brace offsets
__construct() replaces the PHP4-style constructor (name alias kept)
#[AllowDynamicProperties] for PHP 8.2+
TypeError/ValueError guards (count() on strings, preg_match_all on NULL, fopen(''), str_replace on objects/NULL)

Bug fixes

DELETE_CACHE() inverted loop, emptyPattern(), set_root(''), self_script(), showDebugInfo() unreachable branch
stripslashes() removed from getfast() (corrupted \)
pre_filter() is actually applied now
error() gained ERROR_ECHO flag (echo vs error_log)

Security

Method-name validation before eval() (template-driven RCE protection)
readfile() instead of include for .ft cache files

Performance (measured, PHP 7.4)

strtr()-map variable substitution replaces the per-var str_replace loop → 12× faster end-to-end (44ms → 3.6ms on 600 vars / 370KB)
IFDEF normalization, dynamic-strip and parse_defined() only run when <!-- markers exist; per-line fast-path in parse_defined()
New flags:
- $tpl->FAST_REPLACE = true (default) — strtr engine; false = byte-identical legacy loop
- $tpl->FAST_BLOCK_SKIP = true (opt-in) — skip block stages entirely on marker-free templates; 43× vs legacy. Note: legacy trims every line and appends trailing newlines — FAST_BLOCK_SKIP preserves bytes exactly (fixes a latent <pre>/<textarea> whitespace bug)

Known intentional divergence: a value referencing an earlier-registered variable (assign('A','e'); assign('B','{A}')) is now resolved; legacy dropped it. Set FAST_REPLACE = false for exact legacy behavior.

Testing

Self-contained suite, no PHPUnit needed:

php tests\run.php

53 tests covering parsing, dynamic blocks, IFDEF, object tags, includes, flags parity, strict mode, clear*, error paths, FastPrint/FastWrite and setPattern.

License

General Artistic License (see file header). Original copyrights retained per license stipulations.

c0nsul / fasttemplate

Package info

Security

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