Views
Creating a simple view
Creating a view is as simple as creating a .php file in your application's Views directory or in a subdirectory of it.
View data
As mentioned before you can pass data to either your view or your controller. To retrieve data you can fetch the view object, Core\ViewHandler::get('optional_name') and use the get() method on it.
Templating
xTend has a simple yet extendable templating engine called WOW. By default the engine comes in the COMBINED templating flavor which combines it's 2 main flavors, HTML and AT_SIGN. You can set the flavor using the workbench or you can edit the Config/Wow/Flavor.php file.
php workbench wow:flavor HTML
Creating a Wow view
To create a templated view you have to give your file a the double extension .wow.php. Furthermore you have to add following 2 wow expressions to the view
<version value="1" />
<compile value="change+version" />
Or using AT_SIGN flavor
@version:1
@compile:change+compile
These expressions define the version of the view, views are compiled with a version number to keep old views intact if something goes wrong. The second flag defines when to compile the view, you have several options to choose from always, never, change, version and change+version. The change+version will compile when the version goes up and the file has been changed. The other flags speak for themselves.
Notice you can also create a wow view using the workbench's new:view command
Using a layout
Besides making your views more powerful you can also create layouts for your views to extend. To do so create a Wow file in your application's Layouts directory and start writing your layout. In a layout you can use all registered Wow expressions but you can also use a layout specific one called part.
<html>
<head>
<part name="head" />
</head>
<body>
<part name="body" />
</body>
</html>
Notice the part keyword will change to @part:NameOfSection instead of <part name="NameOfSection" /> when using the AT_SIGN flavor
Assigning the layout to the view
To tell wow to compile your view with a layout you have to use the layout flag as follows
<version value="1" />
<compile value="change+version" />
<layout value="nameOfLayout" />
<part name="head">
<!-- part content -->
</part>
Notice as per usual when you use the AT_SIGN flavor, <layout value="nameOfLayout" /> becomes @layout:nameOfLayout. Do keep in mind the <part> keywrod becomes @startpart and @endpart
Also, modules!
Aside from layout support, xTend's WOW engine also has modules. These are supposed to be used as components which can easily be plugged into your view. Just create your WOW module in your application's Modules directory and use the module statements.
<module name="mymodule" />
Or
@module:mymodule
What else can I do with WOW
By default there's a bunch of expressions you can use in your views. As already saw the WOW engine comes in 2 flavors and we will go over every expression in each flavor.
Statment injection
use the {{{ }}} expression, blade-like, to echo out a PHP statement or variable. (3 brackets were used to not interfere with engines such as mustache which uses a 2 bracket style)
{{{ $variable }}}
Notice {{{ }}} is available in both flavors
echo
Use the echo expression to echo out a PHP statement or variable
<echo>$variable</echo>
OR
@echo:$variable;
php
Use the php expression to insert blocks of PHP code if you need it
<php>
//your PHP code
</php>
OR
@php:
//your PHP code
@endphp
if
Use the if expression to insert an if statement into your view or layout
<if>
<condition>true</condition>
//your code
//PHP tag is closed here so re-opening PHP is necessary
</if>
OR
@if:true
//your code
@end
elseif
Use the elseif inside an if statement to add an elseif statement.
<if>
<condition>false</condition>
//your if code
<elseif>
<condition>true</condition>
//your elseif code
</if>
OR
@if:false
//your if code
@elseif:true
//your elseif code
@end
else
Use else inside an if expression to include an else statement in your code
<if>
<condition>false</condition>
//your if code
<else>
//your else code
</if>
OR
@if:false
//your if code
@else
//your else code
@end
for
Use the for expression to add a for loop to your view
<for>
<loop>$i=0;$i<10;++$i</loop>
//your code
</for>
OR
@for:$i=0;$i<10;++$i
//your code
@end
foreach
Use the foreach expression to add a foreach loop to your view
<foreach>
<loop>$a as $b</loop>
//your code
</foreach>
OR
@foreach:$a as $b
//your code
@end
while
Use the while statement to add a while loop to your code
<while>
<condition>$i<10</condition>
//your code
</while>
OR
@while:$i<10
//your code
@end
css
Use this to add a easily add a css link
<css href="file.css" />
OR
<css>file.css</css>
OR
@css:file.css
css embed
Use this to embed a css file into your code. This could potentially improve the speed of your site.
<css embed="file.css" />
OR
<css embed>file.css />
OR
@css_embed:file.css
css external embed
Use this to embed an external css file into your code (from a CDN for example).
<css external-embed="http://....css" />
OR
<css external-embed>http://....css</css>
OR
@css_external:http://....css
js
Use this to add a JavaScript file to your view
<js src="file.js" />
OR
<js>file.js</js>
OR
@js:file.js
js embed
Use this to embed a JavaScript file into your view
<js embed="file.js" />
OR
<js embed>file.js</js>
OR
@js_embed:file.js
js external embed
Use this to embed an external JavaScript file into your view
<js external-embed="http://......js" />
OR
<js external-embed>http://......js</js>
OR
@js_external:http://......js
url
Use this to inject the application's url setting.
<url />
OR
@url
Notice can be used in combination with, for example, the js expression. <js><url/>/file.js</js>
app
Use this to execute or retrieve something from your current app.
<app>getUrl()</app>
OR
@app:getUrl()
app inject
Use this to inject an app method. This will compile without opening and closing php tags and without ending semicolon (;)
<app inject>getUrl()</app>
OR
@iapp:getUrl()
All inject type expressions are compiled without opening and closing php tags and without ending semicolon (;)
controller
Use this to execute a controller method.
<controller>myMethod()</controller>
OR
@controller:myMethod()
Notice every view also comes with a variable called $controller and another one called $controllers. The $controller contains your first controller and the $controllers variable contains all of em
controller inject
Use this to inject a controller method (for use inside an if statement for example)
<controller inject>myMethod()</controller>
OR
@icontroller:myMethod()
controller with name
Use this to execute a specific controller's method (or retrieve a variable). This is intended to be used when loading multiple controllers.
<controller name="Pages.HomeController">myMethod()</controller>
OR
@controller_Pages.HomeController:myMethod()
Use the name you used to load the controller
controller with name inject
Use this to inject a controller method from a specific controller.
<controller inject name="Pages.HomeController">myMethod()</controller>
OR
@icontroller_Pages.HomeController:myMethod()
view
Use this to access the view object.
<view>my_data</view>
OR
@view:my_data
view inject
<view inject>my_data</view>
OR
@iview:my_data
view with name
<view name="index">my_data</view>
OR
@view_index:my_data
view injet with name
<view inject name="index">my_data</view>
OR
@iview_index:my_data
Form method spoof
Use this to spoof a form method (for use with DELETE or PUT)
<spoof method="DELETE" />
OR
@spoof_method:DELETE
CSRF token
Use the csrf (or form) token expression to add a token to your form. You can read more about the formtoken handler in a later chapter.
<formtoken name="form-login" />
OR
@formtoken:form-login
These statements will be replaced by an input field like so:
<input type="hidden" name="token-form-login" value="your-token" />
Persistent token
Use this to generate a persistent CSRF token as expained in the FormTokenHandler documentation.
<formtoken persistent name="form-login" />
OR
@formtoken_persistent:form-login
Creating new expressions
If you take a look into the application's Config/Wow/Wow.php file you can see how most of the expressions are registered. Creating a new expression is as simple as recreating the statements in the config file. As long as you understand regular expressions it should be as easy as pie.