README

Slenderize is a minimalistic view system for PHP.

Current Version

1.3

Description

A PHP package that attempts to mimic some of the unique qualities of slimrb.

Supported Platforms

Right now, I only have access to a linux box. This should have no problem working on MacOS or any BSD variants. Windows support is unknown as I haven't tested on that platform.

How it's done

We use a Recursive Descent Parser to process the view's language grammar and then generate a PHP file from this intermediate syntax. Parsing only occurs once unless the file has been modified.

Usage

Configuration

Code that utilizes this library must set config values using the Config class

<?php
	require 'vendor/autoload.php';

	/** These two lines are required */
	\slenderize\Config::set('view_dir','/path/to/view_dir/');
	\slenderize\Config::set('cache_dir','/path/to/cache_dir/');

Serving a view

Use the \slenderize\Page object to serve a page to the user

	$page = new \slenderize\Page('my_view');	/* Open and parse /path/to/view_dir/my_view */
	$page->view();	/* Will echo out the html generated */

	/* Or you if you like code golf: */
	new \slenderize\Page('my_view')->view();

Exceptions

All exceptions that are thrown by the \slenderize namespace inherit from \Exception, so you can simply catch \Exception

	try {
		$page = new \slenderize\Page('my_view');
	}catch(\Exception $e){
		/** handle exception here */
	}

Syntax

Indentation

Indentation is required to open and close tags.

html
	body
		div|This is a div
			p|this is a paragraph

The above code will generate the following html:

<html><body><div>This is a div<p>this is a paragraph</p></div></body></html>

Whitespace

The generated html is devoid of tab formatting to minimize memory footprint.

Literals

Literal strings start with the pipe character.

html
	body
		div|This is a literal string

Variables

Embedding variables is very similar to most webdev frameworks

html
	body
		{{$my_attributes}}
		div|This is a div

The HTML that is generated by the above code snippet is dependant largely on what is in the variable $my_attributes.

Static variables

Embedding static variables is just like in PHP

html
	body
		{{\My\Class::$my_static_var}}
		div|This is a div

Calling functions on objects

Objects can be passed to the Page and, while inside the view, an instance method can be called on that object.

html
	body
		{{$my_object->my_function()}}
		div|This is a div

NOTE: Currently, there is no way to pass anything to functions.

Calling static methods

Static calls are just like in PHP

html
	body
		{{\Foo\Bar\MyNamespace::my_function()}}
		div|This is a div