Hello. Is there a function available, or can anyone think of a good trick to
determine if a template is syntactically valid, without having to render it?

I'd like to provide my clients a means to do simple template edits. But before
saving the template, I'd like to be able to pass the template as a string to
some function (or pass the filename/path to a function) and have the function
return TRUE if the template is syntactically valid, FALSE otherwise.

cheers,

Travis

--
Travis Low
<mailto:travis@dawnstar.com>
<http://www.dawnstar.com>

On 4 Nov 2006, at 04:23, Travis Low wrote:

> Hello. Is there a function available, or can anyone think of a
> good trick to determine if a template is syntactically valid,
> without having to render it?
>
> I'd like to provide my clients a means to do simple template
> edits. But before saving the template, I'd like to be able to pass
> the template as a string to some function (or pass the filename/
> path to a function) and have the function return TRUE if the
> template is syntactically valid, FALSE otherwise.

I think the only way to do it is to render it in a separate PHP
instance as it's quite easy to create a template that causes a fatal
error, and there's nothing you can do to trap that within the current
PHP instance. So either make a call to a url using file_get_contents
or curl, or call it from a command line instance with exec() and
friends, then check the output for any error messages.

Marcus
--
Marcus Bointon
Synchromedia Limited: Creators of http://www.smartmessages.net/
marcus@synchromedia.co.uk | http://www.synchromedia.co.uk/

> From: Travis Low
> Hello. Is there a function available, or can anyone think of
> a good trick to determine if a template is syntactically
> valid, without having to render it?
>
> I'd like to provide my clients a means to do simple template
> edits. But before saving the template, I'd like to be able
> to pass the template as a string to some function (or pass
> the filename/path to a function) and have the function return
> TRUE if the template is syntactically valid, FALSE otherwise.

Probably the easiest method would be an iframe. Take the user's edited
template, save it as a temp file, use an iframe to make a separate call to
the server to get a rendered version, to be displayed via the iframe. Give
the user a method on the containing page to accept/revise their edited
content. If accepted, issue a request (either via regular post or via in
background with an ajax request) to move the temp file to its permanent
home. Obviously if the edited template results in a fatal parse error or
something, the user will not "accept" the edit.

Iframes are generally irritating, but this is one case where it might be
worthwhile to 'em.

--
Max Schwanekamp
NeptuneWebworks.com

On Fri, Nov 03, 2006 at 11:23:59PM -0500, Travis Low wrote:
> Hello. Is there a function available, or can anyone think of a good trick
> to determine if a template is syntactically valid, without having to render
> it?

unfortunately there is no convenient api function for this.

maybe you can compile the template like eval does:
$smarty->_compile_source('checking template', $source, $php_code)

caveats:
- compiler-function are executed, of course (this may have undesired
side effects)

- maybe you should additionally check the php-syntax of $php_code
since there may be errors in the template that smarty fails to catch
(that should not be, but it happend reguarly)

greetins
messju

> I'd like to provide my clients a means to do simple template edits. But
> before saving the template, I'd like to be able to pass the template as a
> string to some function (or pass the filename/path to a function) and have
> the function return TRUE if the template is syntactically valid, FALSE
> otherwise.
>
> cheers,
>
> Travis
>
> --
> Travis Low
> <mailto:travis@dawnstar.com>
> <http://www.dawnstar.com>
>
> --
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