Plugin Authors Should Read: Latest Dev Blog (v4 Templates)

[Ryan Ashbrook]

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/blog.php?b=2362

I figure this is pertinent enough for the focus of this board to generate some discussion.

I, for one, am looking forward to this. Especially the <vb:each> loops.

If I understood it correctly, this will allow use to reduce the amount of templates we have to create just by placing the bits inside the <vb:each> loops (like threadbits, forumbits, etc.). I've asked for clarification but Scott hasn't gotten back to me yet.

Still, this is great news.

Btw, mods, I didn't know if this belonged here or in the Community Lounge, feel free to move if needed.

[Paul M]

Interesting.

Also means almost all 3.x products will not work on 4.0

[Lynne]

Originally Posted by Paul M

Interesting.

Also means almost all 3.x products will not work on 4.0

True, but it looks straight forward enough that changing the templates and plugins shouldn't be *too* difficult.

I like it.

[Ryan Ashbrook]

I wonder, though.

If they are not using eval ( ), what will they be using? print ( )? include ( )?

There's a million ways to do a template system, I'm curious on how the $templater object works behind the scenes.

[Lynne]

It looks like you use render() instead. It looks like you define it, then define the variables to include, then you render it.

[Wayne Luke]

I think he wants to know how the render method causes the text substitution to build a page and output it to the browser.

I think it would be interesting to see. I am going to guess it will be a combination of preg_replace and output buffering techniques. I haven't seen the code yet though.

[Reeve of shinra]

I hope some of the more experienced coders will update some of the tutorials that have been used around here and maybe write one for updating old plugins so they can be compatible with vb4.

[Dean C]

If you look at the example, the output from render is caught to a variable. Meaning you'll just echo $template->render().