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template engine, the soln for a programmer & designer pa

Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 9:06 pm
by mechamecha
Hello,
I am working together w/ a web designer in creating a content management site. I am doing all the programming in php and the designer will be responsible for the html, css and art.

The problem is my web designer does not know how to code in php. Therefore, I need a workflow that separates php code from html layout and allows us to work on the site separately. Is a template engine the solution?

I have some experience w/ the Smarty Engine. With Smarty, this separation appears to be possible, although the designer would still need to learn some basic Smarty syntax. However would using a template engine be overkill for my purposes? Is there a better solution than resorting to a template engine?

I'm curious as to how most web development teams tackle this problem. Or is it the case today that a web designer must be knowledgeable in an internet scripting language such as php, javascript, etc...

Thank you

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:51 am
by Maugrim_The_Reaper
The way I often see it done is for a designer to mock the page in pure html+css. Afterwards a programmer (or a designer with sufficient Smarty knowledge) can turn it into a template. It's still important that the designer and programmer work together though. As templates are churned out they may need additional data, and you'll need to adjust the application to supply it.

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 9:53 am
by pickle
Templates are never a bad idea. A template engine would apply very nicely to your situation.

If you're somewhat familiar with Smarty & the designer doesn't know any template engine at all, I'd suggest taking a look at TemplateLite. It's a revision of Smarty that is much quicker than Smarty.

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:44 pm
by mechamecha
Guys, thanks for the input!

I'll check out TemplateLite and see if it's a better alternative to Smarty.

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 5:04 pm
by RobertGonzalez
To make it easy on you --> http://templatelite.sourceforge.net

It is an excellent tool that is fairly intuitive. I recommend it highly.