Smarty

[mrequenes]

Has anyone evaluated Smarty in comparison to XML-based solutions such as XSLT? If so, would you share your findings? Which did you choose for production? What were some of the factors that made one win over the other?

Thanks,

Max

[boots]

Are you trolling or do you have some criteria that you are trying to hit? General questions like yours are difficult to answer to anyone's satisfaction What are you trying to do, what are the constraints, what are the goals.

Simple Answer: Smarty Rocks, XSLT (cough cough).

Slightly less simple answer:

I have used both, extensively. I refuse to use XLST any longer (whenever other options are available) and I am actively converting applications that I still need to support away from XSLT (not always to Smarty, mind you).

First of all, XSLT is not nearly as standardized as people would have you believe. Every vendor using extensions. Not all parsers are compliant with the spec. If you are designing for client parsing: forget it. You'll never be able to trust your client to be able to parse your XSLT as even different versions of the same browser don't exhibit consistent results. Its a mess.

As far as "template" systems go, XSLT represent's probably the very worst possible of all systems that could be made into a standard. XSLT sits in no man's land. It is supposed to be for designers, but puts everything into a rigid framework completely UNSUITED for designers. Designers don't understand nodes or recursive algorithms. They don't care about trying to remember when and where template calls are made. XSLT insists that the flow of their lovely designs be chopped and mangled into nodes until the point that they can't recognize them anymore or understand what goes where.

Worse, you need a degree from the W3C to figure out how to do the simplest of things. THEN, you have to type until your fingers fall off because the syntax requirements are through the roof. ALL THIS without some of the familiar conveniences of "normal" programming languages. Its declarative (instead of procedural) syntax means you are going to be scratching your head every time you look at someone else's "template" or any time you have to modify your own work.

Your designers won't understand it (and will have minor heartattacks when you insist they use it because it is the new ms approved standard of the month) and your programmers will throw up (and have major heartattacks when you insist they use it because it is the new ms approved standard of the month).

The math situation is maybe worse in XSLT than Smarty and that says a lot.

But you get validating documents, even if no one really cares about that!

XSLT completely perverts the meaning of "template". XSLT is a declarative recursive node converter using XML's validating syntax and that's about it. In my opinion, the only good thing that came out of XSLT was XPATH and that's only important if you are going to jump on the XML bandwagon. I walked that road. I started converting all my work to be XML just after I read the original draft spec in 98. I tried. I tried HARD. I made things work, no matter the effort. I sweated but rejoiced because my documents were "standards compliant". Years later I can report that XML is a completely suitable language for computers to use to talk to each other or serialize data. BUT if that is *ALL* it is good for, then it has zero advantadges over binary data and many disadvantadges. Lets be honest, to say that humans can "read and understand" XML (and especially XSLT) is barely true. There is too much syntax to make it true.

XSLT was designed by a computer, not a human being. Actually, it was designed by a commitee of computers.

How did I do?

[dthought]

Being more immediately familiar with Smarty, I've lightly investigated XSLT, and got very, very scared. As a designer, it terrifies me.

Boots' post had me laughing, it's very poignant

[AZTEK]

XSLT is very powerful and has many many useful applications, but for web templating with PHP I still think Smarty is the best idea
_________________
"Imagine a school with children that can read and write, but with teachers who cannot, and you have a metaphor of the Information Age in which we live." -Peter Cochrane

[mrequenes]

Esp. boots, for the detailed list of XSLT gotchas.

To answer boots' question, my post wasn't meant as a troll. I expected a little Smarty bias in responses (it IS a Smarty forum, after all), but that's ok.

I'm writing my own CMS/blog system after evaluating MANY (usually heavyweight, and usually sloppily coded) CMS systems. Requirements, in a nutshell, are:
* multi-page stories
* stories can branch off on multi-page "tangents"
* embedded images
* a teaser image (not a rigid topic-image) for the story
* ability to "publish" static pages as html files (easier for user to bookmark, better performance)
* user comments (in the future)

I am considering whether to use Smarty, XSLT, or a homemade templating solution.

Before getting your feedback, my opinions of the pros/cons of XSLT vs. Smarty were as follows:

XSLT
pros: it is a w3c standard
cons: complicated workflow, complicated syntax

Smarty
pros: nicer syntax, caching support, designed w/ CMS in mind
cons: yet another "non-standard" templating system, layout and logic intertwined (though, not much more than XSLT, AFAIK)

Thanks again for the comments. They were usefull.

- Max

[mniskanen]

Just a couple of comments on your requirements

[codemator]

I am Using Smarty for last 88 months. In New project I want XSLT
See This Article
devpapers[dot]com[slash]article[slash]18