README

Renders plain PHP view template files with data.

Requirements

PHP 8.0+

Installation

composer require coroq/view

Quick Start

Suppose you have view templates organized like this:

project/
├── view/
│   ├── common/
│   │   └── header.php
│   ├── welcome.php
│   └── ...
└── index.php

In your code:

<?php
use Coroq\View\ViewRenderer;

// Create a renderer with your view directory
$view = new ViewRenderer(__DIR__ . '/view');

// Render the template, supplying the data it needs
echo $view->render(
  'welcome.php',     // Template path, resolved to __DIR__ . '/view/welcome.php'
  [                  // Data array - keys become variable names in template
    'username' => 'Alice',
    'message' => 'Welcome back!'
  ]
);

Your template file at view/welcome.php:

<?php
/**
 * @var ViewRenderer $this
 */
// Templates are executed in the context of the ViewRenderer instance.
// Include another template using $this->include().
// Path is relative to the view directory.
// Data passed as second argument becomes variables in the included template.
$this->include('common/header.php', ['title' => 'Welcome']);
?>
<h1><?= htmlspecialchars($username) ?></h1>
<p><?= htmlspecialchars($message) ?></p>

The included view/common/header.php:

<?php // $title is available from the data passed to include() ?>
<header><?= htmlspecialchars($title) ?></header>

Benefits

Centralized base directory: Define template directory once in the constructor, avoiding scattered __DIR__ . '/../../../view/...' paths.

String return: Returns rendered output as a string instead of echoing directly. Useful for creating PSR-7 responses. Eliminates manual ob_start() and ob_get_clean() wrapping.

Variable isolation: Template variables are isolated from controller logic. Templates receive only the variables they need. Variables are accessed directly as $username instead of $data['username'].

Usage

render()

render(string $template, array $data): string

Renders a template and returns the output as a string.

$template - Path to the template file, relative to the base directory. Must not contain absolute paths or directory traversal (../).
$data - Associative array of variables to pass to the template. Keys become variable names.
Returns: The rendered HTML as a string.

include()

include(string $template, array $data): void

Renders a template and echoes the output directly. Use within templates as $this->include().

Parameters: Same as render().
Returns: Nothing (outputs directly).

templateExists()

templateExists(string $template): bool

Checks if a template file exists.

$template - Same as render().
Returns: true if the template file exists, false otherwise.

Useful when rendering templates based on user-provided paths:

$userPath = 'pages/' . $requestedPage . '.php';

if (!$view->templateExists($userPath)) {
    return notFound();
}

return $view->render($userPath, $data);

Subclass for helpers

Define reusable components as methods in a ViewRenderer subclass:

class BlogView extends ViewRenderer {
  public function __construct() {
    parent::__construct(__DIR__ . '/view/blog');
  }

  protected function header() {
    $this->include('header.php');
  }

  protected function footer() {
    $this->include('footer.php');
  }

  protected function postCard(object $post) {
    $this->include('post_card.php', ['post' => $post]);
  }
}

// Use in templates
$blog = new BlogView();
echo $blog->render('index.php', ['posts' => $posts]);

Template using helpers:

<?php // index.php ?>
<?php $this->header(); ?>

<div class="posts">
  <?php foreach ($posts as $post): ?>
    <?php $this->postCard($post); ?>
  <?php endforeach; ?>
</div>

<?php $this->footer(); ?>

Multiple view classes

Separate view classes for different areas of your application:

// User-facing templates
class UserView extends ViewRenderer {
  public function __construct() {
    parent::__construct(__DIR__ . '/view/user');
  }
}

// Admin templates
class AdminView extends ViewRenderer {
  public function __construct() {
    parent::__construct(__DIR__ . '/view/admin');
  }
}

HTML escaping

HTML escaping is out of scope for this library. You have three options:

1. Use htmlspecialchars() directly

<h1><?= htmlspecialchars($title) ?></h1>

2. Use an HTML handling library like coroq/html

<h1><?= h($title) ?></h1>

3. Define escape method in ViewRenderer subclass

class UserView extends ViewRenderer {
  protected function e($value) {
    return htmlspecialchars($value, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');
  }
}

// In template
<h1><?= $this->e($title) ?></h1>

License

MIT

coroq / view

Maintainers

Details