Running is therapy

Over the last few months off and on I have been messing with an idea I had in PHP. The idea came to me when I was working on a rails project. In rails they have the idea of partials. Now this is nothing new (but bear with me). In rails, you can make sections of the view into a partial template and then include it in other templates. This is pretty easily done using Smarty (or regular php for that matter). The one thing I did find interesting was that by using the JS httprequest object you can update the partial and consequently the portions of the view without a page reload.

All that got me thinking. Since I use php from time to time for web work, and I also usually try to add a dash of ajax where it makes sense, having some sort of partials that could be updated in that way would be useful. So I created the smallest framework known to man :) It’s essentially two classes and a JS file. And really only one classes is filled in for you. I packaged it all up and put it in subversion. Now if I have a project I check it out and gets to hacking.

Anyway…the main class that does the magic in php is as follows:


< ?
include('Smarty.class.php');
include('../includes/Assign.class.php');
 
$p = new Partial();
 
$div_id = $_POST['div_id'];
 
$string = $p->updatePartial();
 
print "Partial.RenderPartial('$div_id', '$string');";
 
class Partial {
 
  function updatePartial() {
    $smarty = new Smarty();
    $assign = new Assign();
 
    $smarty->compile_dir = '../templates_c';
 
    $template_dir = dirname(__FILE__) . '/../templates/';
    $template     = $template_dir . $_POST['partial'];
 
    $assign_method = preg_replace('/.tmpl/', '', $_POST['partial']);
 
    if (method_exists($assign, $assign_method)) {
      $assign->$assign_method($smarty, $_POST);
    }
 
    $string = $smarty->fetch($template);
    $string = preg_replace('/\n/', '', $string);
    $string = addslashes($string);
 
    return $string;
  }


It’s pretty simple, and really doesn’t do a whole lot, but it does provide me with a quick and dirty solution. It also keeps the html from mixing with the JS. Speaking of Javascript…here is a snip of the JS I use with this:


  this.RenderPartial = function(div_id, string) {
    div = document.getElementById(div_id);
    div.innerHTML = string;
  }


Looking at all that, you take a smarty template, you turn it into a string, you pass it back to the client side and update whatever div you supply in the intial POST. The assignment stuff in the PHP is just a way to name a method similar to the template file in Assign class and assign any template variables in the partial template.


< ?
require_once('Db.class.php');
 
class Assign {
 
  function page_results($smarty, $post) {
    $db = new DataBase();
    $count = $db->pageCount($post['from'], $post['to']);
 
    $smarty->assign('page_count', $count);
    $smarty->assign('from', $post['from']);
    $smarty->assign('to', $post['to']);
  }
 
} // End Class
 
?>


I have run into a few problems here and there and was able to solve them so far. I haven’t used it real heavly yet to uncover all the places where the model breaks down, but I expect to as time goes on (use it I mean :). Oh and as always, check your input if it’s coming from the client side ;)

I was watching Scarborough Country tonite. They had a piece on Jon Stewart. Basically they were asking the question of weather or not The Daily Show as left of center.

They of course had a Lefty and a Righty on there to debate the issue. The Righty was laughable. He kept saying that Stewart would lose his audience if he kept pushing his liberal agenda. I fully expect, and look forward to, the skewering of the left if they take the House and/or Senate.

In fact if you can watch The Daily Show today and not see the bipartisen laughs, you are the one projecting your politics on the screen.