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664 lines
23 KiB
Markdown
664 lines
23 KiB
Markdown
# Templates
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## Introduction
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SilverStripe templates consist of HTML code augmented with special control codes, described below. Because of this, you
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can have as much control of your site's HTML code as you like.
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Because the SilverStripe templating language is a string processing language it can therefore be used to make other
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text-based data formats, such as XML or RTF.
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Here is a very simple template:
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:::ss
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<html>
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<head>
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<% base_tag %>
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<title>$Title</title>
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<% require themedCSS(screen) %>
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</head>
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<body>
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<header>
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<h1>Bob's Chicken Shack</h1>
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</header>
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<% with $CurrentMember %>
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<p>Welcome $FirstName $Surname.</p>
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<% end_with %>
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<% if Dishes %>
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<ul>
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<% loop Dishes %>
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<li>$Title ($Price.Nice)</li>
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<% end_loop %>
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</ul>
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<% end_if %>
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<% include Footer %>
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</body>
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</html>
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More sophisticated use of templates for pages managed in the CMS,
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including template inheritance and navigation loops
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is documented in the [page types](/topics/page-types) topic.
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# Template elements
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## Variables
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Variables are things you can use in a template that grab data from the page and put in the HTML document. For example:
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:::ss
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$Title
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This inserts the value of the Title field of the page being displayed in place of `$Title`. This type of variable is called a **property**. It is often something that can be edited in the CMS. Variables can be chained together, and include arguments.
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:::ss
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$Property
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$Property(param)
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$Property.SubProperty
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These **variables** will call a method/field on the object and insert the returned value as a string into the template.
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* `$Property` will call `$obj->Property()` (or the field `$obj->Property`)
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* `$Property(param)` will call `$obj->Property("param")`
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* `$Property.SubProperty` will call `$obj->Property()->SubProperty()` (or field equivalents)
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If a variable returns a string, that string will be inserted into the template. If the variable returns an object, then
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the system will attempt to render the object through its forTemplate() method. If the `forTemplate()` method has not been
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defined, the system will return an error.
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SilverStripe provides lots of properties and methods. For more details on built-in page controls and variables, see http://doc.silverstripe.org/framework/en/reference/built-in-page-controls
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### Escaping
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Sometimes you will have template tags which need to roll into one another. This can often result in SilverStripe looking
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for a "FooBar" value rather than a "Foo" and then "Bar" value or when you have a string directly before or after the
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variable you will need to escape the specific variable. In the following example `$Foo` is `3`.
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:::ss
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$Foopx // returns "" (as it looks for a Foopx value)
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{$Foo}px // returns "3px" (CORRECT)
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Or when having a `$` sign in front of the variable
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:::ss
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$$Foo // returns ""
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${$Foo} // returns "$3"
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You can also use a backslash to escape the name of the variable, such as:
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:::ss
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$Foo // returns "3"
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\$Foo // returns "$Foo"
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## Includes
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Within SilverStripe templates we have the ability to include other templates from the Includes directory using the SS
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'include' tag. For example, the following code would include the `Includes/SideBar.ss` code:
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:::ss
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<% include SideBar %>
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The "include" tag can be particularly helpful for nested functionality. In this example, the include only happens if
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a variable is true
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:::ss
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<% if CurrentMember %>
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<% include MembersOnlyInclude %>
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<% end_if %>
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Includes can't directly access the parent scope of the scope active when the include is included. However you can
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pass arguments to the include, which are available on the scope top within the include
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:::ss
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<% with CurrentMember %>
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<% include MemberDetails PageTitle=$Top.Title, PageID=$Top.ID %>
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<% end_with %>
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You can also perform includes using the Requirements Class via the template controls. See the section on
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[Includes in Templates](requirements#including_inside_template_files) for more details and examples.
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:::ss
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<% require themedCSS(LeftNavMenu) %>
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### Including CSS and JavaScript files (a.k.a "Requirements")
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See [CSS](/topics/css) and [Javascript](/topics/javascript) topics for individual including of files and
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[requirements](reference/requirements) for good examples of including both Javascript and CSS files.
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## Conditional Logic
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You can conditionally include markup in the output. That is, test for something
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that is true or false, and based on that test, control what gets output.
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The simplest if block is to check for the presence of a value.
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:::ss
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<% if $CurrentMember %>
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<p>You are logged in as $CurrentMember.FirstName $CurrentMember.Surname.</p>
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<% end_if %>
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The following compares a page property called `MyDinner` with the value in
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quotes, `kipper`, which is a **literal**. If true, the text inside the if-block
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is output.
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:::ss
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<% if $MyDinner="kipper" %>
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Yummy, kipper for tea.
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<% end_if %>
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Note that inside a tag like this, variables should have a '$' prefix, and
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literals should have quotes. SilverStripe 2.4 didn't include the quotes or $
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prefix, and while this still works, we recommend the new syntax as it is less
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ambiguous.
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This example shows the use of the `else` option. The markup after `else` is
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output if the tested condition is *not* true.
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:::ss
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<% if $MyDinner="kipper" %>
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Yummy, kipper for tea
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<% else %>
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I wish I could have kipper :-(
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<% end_if %>
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This example shows the user of `else_if`. There can be any number of `else_if`
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clauses. The conditions are tested from first to last, until one of them is true,
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and the markup for that condition is used. If none of the conditions are true,
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the markup in the `else` clause is used, if that clause is present.
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:::ss
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<% if $MyDinner="quiche" %>
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Real men don't eat quiche
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<% else_if $MyDinner=$YourDinner %>
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We both have good taste
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<% else %>
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Can I have some of your chips?
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<% end_if %>
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This example shows the use of `not` to negate the test.
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:::ss
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<% if not $DinnerInOven %>
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I'm going out for dinner tonight.
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<% end_if %>
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You can combine two or more conditions with `||` ("or"). The markup is used if
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*either* of the conditions is true.
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:::ss
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<% if $MyDinner=="kipper" || $MyDinner=="salmon" %>
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yummy, fish for tea
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<% end_if %>
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You can combine two or more conditions with `&&` ("and"). The markup is used if
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*both* of the conditions are true.
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:::ss
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<% if $MyDinner=="quiche" && $YourDinner=="kipper" %>
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Lets swap dinners
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<% end_if %>
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## Looping Over Lists
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The `<% loop %>...<% end_loop %>` tag is used to **iterate** or loop over a
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collection of items. For example:
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:::ss
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<ul>
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<% loop $Children %>
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<li>$Title</li>
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<% end_loop %>
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</ul>
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This loops over the children of a page, and generates an unordered list showing
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the `Title` property from each one. Note that `$Title` *inside* the loop refers
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to the `Title` property on each object that is looped over, not the current page.
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To refer to the current page's `Title` property inside the loop, you can do
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`$Up.Title`. More about `Up` later.
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### Position Indicators
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Inside the loop scope, there are many variables at your disposal to determine the
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current position in the list and iteration:
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* `$Even`, `$Odd`: Returns boolean, handy for zebra striping
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* `$EvenOdd`: Returns a string, either 'even' or 'odd'. Useful for CSS classes.
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* `$First`, `$Last`, `$Middle`: Booleans about the position in the list
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* `$FirstLast`: Returns a string, "first", "last", or "". Useful for CSS classes.
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* `$Pos`: The current position in the list (integer). Will start at 1.
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* `$TotalItems`: Number of items in the list (integer)
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### Modulus and MultipleOf
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$Modulus and $MultipleOf can help to build column layouts.
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:::ss
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$Modulus(value, offset) // returns an int
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$MultipleOf(factor, offset) // returns a boolean.
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The following example demonstrates how you can use $Modulus(4) to generate
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custom column names based on your loop statement. Note that this works for any
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control statement (not just children).
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:::ss
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<% loop Children %>
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<div class="column-{$Modulus(4)}">
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...
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</div>
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<% end_loop %>
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Will return you column-3, column-2, column-1, column-0, column-3 etc. You can
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use these as styling hooks to float, position as you need.
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You can also use $MultipleOf(value, offset) to help build columned layouts. In
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this case we want to add a <br> after every 3th item.
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:::ss
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<% loop Children %>
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<% if MultipleOf(3) %>
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<br>
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<% end_if %>
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<% end_loop %>
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## Scope
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In the `<% loop %>` section, we saw an example of two **scopes**. Outside the
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`<% loop %>...<% end_loop %>`, we were in the scope of the page. But inside the
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loop, we were in the scope of an item in the list. The scope determines where
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the value comes from when you refer to a variable. Typically the outer scope of
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a page type's layout template is the page that is currently being rendered.
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The outer scope of an included template is the scope that it was included into.
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### Up
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When we are in a scope, we sometimes want to refer to the scope outside the
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<% loop %> or <% with %>. We can do that easily by using `$Up`. `$Up` takes
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the scope back to the previous level. Take the following example:
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:::ss
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$Title
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--
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<% loop Children %>
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$Title
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$Up.Title
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--
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<% loop Children %>
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$Title
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$Up.Title
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<% end_loop %>
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<% end_loop %>
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With a page structure (Blog -> Blog entry -> Child blog entry) the
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above will produce:
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:::sss
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Blog
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--
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Blog entry
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Blog
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--
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Child blog entry
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Blog entry
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### Top
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While `$Up` provides us a way to go up 1 scope, `$Top` is a shortcut to jump to
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the top most scope of the page. Using the previous example but expanded to
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include `$Top`:
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:::ss
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$Title
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--
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<% loop Children %>
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$Title
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$Up.Title
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$Top.Title
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--
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<% loop Children %>
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$Title
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$Up.Title
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$Top.Title
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<% end_loop %>
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<% end_loop %>
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Will produce
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:::ss
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Blog
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--
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Blog entry
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Blog
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Blog
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--
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Child blog entry
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Blog entry
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Blog
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### With
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The `<% with %>...<% end_with %>` tag lets you introduce a new scope. Consider
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the following example:
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:::ss
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<% with $CurrentMember %>
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Hello $FirstName, welcome back. Your current balance is $Balance.
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<% end_with %>
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Outside the `<% with %>...<% end_with %>`, we are in the page scope. Inside it,
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we are in the scope of `$CurrentMember`. We can refer directly to properties and
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methods of that member. So $FirstName is equivalent to $CurrentMember.FirstName.
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This keeps the markup clean, and if the scope is a complicated expression we don't
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have to repeat it on each reference of a property.
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`<% with %>` also lets us use a collection as a scope, so we can access
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properties of the collection itself, instead of iterating over it. For example:
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:::ss
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$Children.Length
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returns the number of items in the $Children collection.
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## Pagination
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Lists can be paginated, and looped over to generate pagination. For this to
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work, the list needs to be wrapped in a `[api:PaginatedList]`. The process is
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explained in detail on the ["pagination" howto](/howto/pagination).
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The list is split up in multiple "pages", each . Note that "page" is this context
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does not necessarily refer to a `Page` class (although it often happens to be one).
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* `$MoreThanOnePage`: Returns true when we have a multi-page list, restricted with a limit.
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* `$NextLink`, `$PrevLink`: This returns links to the next and previous page in a multi-page datafeed. They will return blank if there's no appropriate page to go to, so `$PrevLink` will return blank when you're on the first page.
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* `$CurrentPage`: Current page iterated on
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* `$TotalPages`: Total number of pages
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* `$TotalItems`: This returns the total number of items across all pages.
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* `$Pages`: The actual (limited) list of records, use in an inner loop
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* `$PageNum`: Page number, starting at 1 (within `$Pages`)
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* `$Link`: Links to the current controller URL, setting this page as current via a GET parameter (within `$Pages`)
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* `$CurrentBool`: Returns true if you're currently on that page (within `$Pages`)
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## Formatting and Casting
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Properties are usually auto-escaped in templates to ensure consistent representation,
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and avoid format clashes like displaying unescaped ampersands in HTML.
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By default, values are escaped as `XML`, which is equivalent to `HTML` for this purpose.
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There's some exceptions to this rule, see the ["security" topic](/topics/security).
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In case you want to explicitly allow unescaped HTML input,
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the property can be cast as `[api:HTMLText]`.
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The following example takes the `Content` field in a `SiteTree` class,
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which is of this type. It forces the content into an explicitly escaped format.
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:::ss
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$Content.XML // transforms e.g. "<em>alert</em>" to "<em>alert</em>"
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Apart from value formatting, there's many methods to transform them as well,
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For example, the built in `$Now` placeholder is an instance of `[api:Date]`,
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and returns the current date in a standard system format.
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Since its an object, you can use the helper methods to return other formats:
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:::ss
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$Now.Year // Current year
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$Now.Nice // Localized date, based on i18n::get_locale()
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See [data-types](/topics/data-types) for more information.
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## Translations
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Translations are easy to use with a template, and give access to SilverStripe's translation facilities. Here is an example:
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<%t Member.WELCOME 'Welcome {name} to {site}' name=$Member.Name site="Foobar.com" %>
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Pulling apart this example we see:
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* `Member.WELCOME` is an identifier in the translation system, for which different translations may be available. This string may include named placeholders, in braces.
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* `'Welcome {name} to {site}'` is the default string used, if there is no translation for Member.WELCOME in the current locale. This contains named placeholders.
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* `name=$Member.Name` assigns a value to the named placeholder `name`. This value is substituted into the translation string wherever `{name}` appears in that string. In this case, it is assigning a value from a property `Member.Name`
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* `site="Foobar.com"` assigns a literal value to another named placeholder, `site`.
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## Comments
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Using standard HTML comments is supported. These comments will be included in the published site.
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:::ss
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$EditForm <!-- Some public comment about the form -->
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However you can also use special SilverStripe comments which will be stripped out of the published site. This is useful
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for adding notes for other developers but for things you don't want published in the public html.
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:::ss
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$EditForm <%-- Some hidden comment about the form --%>
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## Partial Caching
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Partial caching lets you define blocks of your template that are cached for better performance. See [Partial Caching](/reference/partial-caching) for more information.
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### Base Tag
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The `<% base_tag %>` placeholder is replaced with the HTML base element. Relative links within a document (such as `<img
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src="someimage.jpg" />`) will become relative to the URI specified in the base tag. This ensures the browser knows where
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to locate your site’s images and css files. So it is a must for templates!
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It renders in the template as `<base href="http://www.mydomain.com" /><!--[if lte IE 6]></base><![endif]-->`
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## CurrentMember
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Returns the currently logged in member, if there is one.
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All of their details or any special Member page controls can be called on this.
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Alternately, you can use `<% if CurrentMember %>` to detect whether someone has logged
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in.
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:::ss
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<% if CurrentMember %>
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Welcome Back, $CurrentMember.FirstName
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<% end_if %>
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## Custom Template Variables and Controls
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There are two ways you can extend the template variables you have available. You can create a new database field in your
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`$db` or if you do not need the variable to be editable in the cms you can create a function which returns a value in your
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`Page.php` class.
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:::php
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// mysite/code/Page.php
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public function MyCustomValue() {
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return "Hi, this is my site";
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}
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Will give you the ability to call `$MyCustomValue` from anywhere in your template.
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:::ss
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I've got one thing to say to you: <i>$MyCustomValue</i>
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// output "I've got one thing to say to you: <i>Hi, this is my site</i>"
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Your function could return a single value as above or it could be a subclass of `[api:ArrayData]` for example a
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`[api:DataObject]` with many values then each of these could be accessible via a control loop
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:::php
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// ...
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public function MyCustomValues() {
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return new ArrayData(array("Hi" => "Kia Ora", "Name" => "John Smith"));
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}
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And now you could call these values by using
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:::ss
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<% with MyCustomValues %>
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$Hi , $Name
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<% end_with %>
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// output "Kia Ora , John Smith"
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Or by using the dot notation you would have
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:::ss
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$MyCustomValues.Hi , $MyCustomValues.Name
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// output "Kia Ora , John Smith"
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### Side effects
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||
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All functions that provide data to templates must have no side effects, as the value is cached after first access. For example, this controller method
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|
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:::php
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private $counter = 0;
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public function Counter() {
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$this->counter += 1;
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return $this->counter;
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}
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and this template
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:::ss
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$Counter, $Counter, $Counter
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will render as "1, 1, 1", not "1, 2, 3"
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|
||
## .typography style
|
||
|
||
By default, SilverStripe includes the `theme/css/typography.css` file into the Content area. So you should always include the
|
||
typography style around the main body of the site so both styles appear in the CMS and on the template. Where the main body of
|
||
the site is can vary, but usually it is included in the /Layout files. These files are included into the main Page.ss template
|
||
by using the `$Layout` variable so it makes sense to add the .typography style around $Layout.
|
||
|
||
:::ss
|
||
<div class="typography">
|
||
$Layout
|
||
</div>
|
||
|
||
## Calling templates from PHP code
|
||
|
||
This is all very well and good, but how do the templates actually get called?
|
||
|
||
Templates do nothing on their own. Rather, they are used to render *a particular object*. All of the `<% if %>`, `<%control %>`,
|
||
and variable codes are methods or parameters that are called *on that object*. All that is necessary is
|
||
that the object is an instance of `[api:ViewableData]` (or one of its subclasses).
|
||
|
||
The key is `[api:ViewableData::renderWith()]`. This method is passed a For example, within the controller's default action,
|
||
there is an instruction of the following sort:
|
||
|
||
:::php
|
||
$controller->renderWith("TemplateName");
|
||
|
||
|
||
Here's what this line does:
|
||
|
||
* First `renderWith()` constructs a new object: `$template = new SSViewer("TemplateName");`
|
||
* `[api:SSViewer]` will take the content of `TemplateName.ss`, and turn it into PHP code.
|
||
* Then `renderWith()` passes the controller to `$template->process($controller);`
|
||
* `SSViewer::process()` will execute the PHP code generated from `TemplateName.ss` and return the results.
|
||
|
||
`renderWith()` returns a string - the populated template. In essence, it uses a template to cast an object to a string.
|
||
|
||
`renderWith()` can also be passed an array of template names. If this is done, then `renderWith()` will use the first
|
||
available template name.
|
||
|
||
Below is an example of how to implement renderWith. In the example below the page is rendered using the myAjaxTemplate
|
||
if the page is called by an ajax function (using `[api:Director::is_ajax()]`). Note that the index function is called by
|
||
default if it exists and there is no action in the url parameters.
|
||
|
||
:::php
|
||
class MyPage_Controller extends Page_Controller {
|
||
|
||
public function init(){
|
||
parent::init();
|
||
}
|
||
|
||
public function index() {
|
||
if(Director::is_ajax()) {
|
||
return $this->renderWith("myAjaxTemplate");
|
||
} else {
|
||
return Array();// execution as usual in this case...
|
||
}
|
||
}
|
||
}
|
||
|
||
## Fragment Link rewriting
|
||
|
||
Fragment links are links with a "#" in them. A frequent use-case is to use fragment links to point to different
|
||
sections of the current page. For example, we might have this in our template.
|
||
|
||
For, example, we might have this on http://www.example.com/my-long-page/
|
||
|
||
:::ss
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><a href="#section1">Section 1</a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="#section2">Section 2</a></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
So far, so obvious. However, things get tricky because of we have set our `<base>` tag to point to the root of your
|
||
site. So, when you click the first link you will be sent to http://www.example.com/#section1 instead of
|
||
http://www.example.com/my-long-page/#section1
|
||
|
||
In order to prevent this situation, the SSViewer template renderer will automatically rewrite any fragment link that
|
||
doesn't specify a URL before the fragment, prefixing the URL of the current page. For our example above, the following
|
||
would be created:
|
||
|
||
:::ss
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><a href="my-long-page/#section1">Section 1</a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="my-long-page/#section2">Section 2</a></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
There are cases where this can be unhelpful. HTML fragments created from Ajax responses are the most common. In these
|
||
situations, you can disable fragment link rewriting like so:
|
||
|
||
:::php
|
||
SSViewer::setOption('rewriteHashlinks', false);
|
||
|
||
### More Advanced Controls
|
||
|
||
Template variables and controls are just PHP properties and methods
|
||
on the underlying controllers and model classes.
|
||
We've just shown you the most common once, in practice
|
||
you can use any public API on those classes, and [extend](/reference/dataextension) them
|
||
with your own. To get an overview on what's available to you,
|
||
we recommend that you dive into the API docs for the following classes:
|
||
|
||
* `[api:Controller]`: Generic controller class
|
||
* `[api:DataObject]`: Generic model class
|
||
* `[api:ViewableData]`: Underlying object class for pretty much anything displayable
|
||
|
||
## Designing reusable templates
|
||
|
||
Although SilverStripe is ultimately flexible in how you create your templates, there's a couple of best practices. These
|
||
will help you to design templates for modules, and make it easier for other site developers to integrate them into their
|
||
own base templates.
|
||
|
||
* Most of your templates should be `Layout` templates
|
||
* Build your templates as a [Theme](/topics/themes) so you can easily re-use and exchange them
|
||
* Your layout template should include a standard markup structure (`<div id="Layout">$Layout</div>`)
|
||
* Layout templates only include content that could be completely replaced by another module (e.g. a forum thread). It
|
||
might be infeasible to do this 100%, but remember that every piece of navigation that needs to appear inside `$Layout`
|
||
will mean that you have to customise templates when integrating the module.
|
||
* Any CSS applied to layout templates should be flexible width. This means the surrounding root template can set its
|
||
width independently.
|
||
* Don't include any navigation elements in your `Layout` templates, they should be contained in the root template.
|
||
* Break down your templates into groups of includes. Site integrators would then have the power to override individual
|
||
includes, rather than entire templates.
|
||
|
||
For more information about templates go to the [Advanced Templates](/reference/advanced-templates) page.
|
||
|
||
## Related
|
||
|
||
* [Built in page controls](/reference/built-in-page-controls)
|
||
* [Page Type Templates](/topics/page-type-templates)
|
||
* [Typography](/reference/typography)
|
||
* [Themes](/topics/themes)
|
||
* [Widgets](/topics/widgets)
|
||
* [Images](/reference/image)
|
||
* [Tutorial 1: Building a basic site](/tutorials/1-building-a-basic-site)
|
||
* [Tutorial 2: Extending a basic site](/tutorials/2-extending-a-basic-site)
|
||
* [Developing Themes](/topics/theme-development)
|
||
* [Templates: formal syntax description](/reference/templates-formal-syntax)
|