TinyButStrong

Last updated
TinyButStrong Template Engine
Developer(s) Skrol29
Stable release
3.7.0 / March 18, 2011;7 years ago (2011-03-18)
Written in PHP
Type Template Engine
License LGPL
Website www.tinybutstrong.com

TinyButStrong is a web template system written in the PHP language. Its library for the attention of PHP developers. As a template system, its goal is to help to code by separating the business algorithms (Business logic) from the construction of the user presentation. The short name for TinyButStrong is TBS.

Web template system uses a template processor to combine web templates to form finished web pages;web publishing tool present in content management systems, web application frameworks, and HTML editors

A web template system in web publishing lets web designers and developers work with web templates to automatically generate custom web pages, such as the results from a search. This reuses static web page elements while defining dynamic elements based on web request parameters. Web templates support static content, providing basic structure and appearance. Developers can implement templates from content management systems, web application frameworks, and HTML editors.

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor is a general-purpose programming language originally designed for web development. It was originally created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994; the PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group. PHP originally stood for Personal Home Page, but it now stands for the recursive initialism PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.

Algorithm an unambiguous specification of how to solve a class of problems

In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an unambiguous specification of how to solve a class of problems. Algorithms can perform calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning tasks.

Contents

The first version of TinyButStrong appeared in January 2002. Its first goal was to merge emails. In the middle 2002, it was able to merge dynamic web pages. The name of TinyButStrong comes from the intention to be simple to use while being handy for several levels of developers. TinyButStrong was always content in a single PHP file.

Dynamic web page

A server-side dynamic web page is a web page whose construction is controlled by an application server processing server-side scripts. In server-side scripting, parameters determine how the assembly of every new web page proceeds, including the setting up of more client-side processing.

The TinyButStrong Template Engine claims to merge Natural Templates, i.e. templates that respect the format of the final document to produce. It is possible to build an HTML template that is W3C compliant, and it is possible to build it using a WYSIWYG tool. It is also possible to build an OpenOffice Writer template using OpenOffice.org.

WYSIWYG is an acronym for "what you see is what you get". In computing, a WYSIWYG editor is a system in which content can be edited in a form closely resembling its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation.

OpenOffice.org free software office suite

OpenOffice.org (OOo), commonly known as OpenOffice, is a discontinued open-source office suite. It was an open-sourced version of the earlier StarOffice, which Sun Microsystems acquired in 1999 for internal use.

This ability to operate within an environment where website designers use WYSIWYG tools is crucial for end users during website development. It enables them to utilize separate vendors - one for their 'look & feel' designers and other(s) for their programming requirements. Obviously, this extends the lifecycle as their ability to change vendors with much less difficulty in replacing specific skill sets is enhanced substantially.

The TinyButStrong engine can only deals with template that are text sources. Thus, it can merge contents like HTML pages, email, XML, or RSS, but it cannot merge templates such as PDF. The core system contains few features dedicated to HTML templates.

The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format developed by Adobe in the 1990s to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. Based on the PostScript language, each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout flat document, including the text, fonts, vector graphics, raster images and other information needed to display it. PDF was standardized as an open format, ISO 32000, in 2008, and no longer requires any royalties for its implementation.

TinyButStrong can be extended to merge OpenOffice and Microsoft Office documents. This is possible because such documents are in fact XML contents embed in a zip archive. Building such documents with TinyButStrong requires a plug-in called OpenTBS.

Microsoft Office Suite of office programs produced by Microsoft

Microsoft Office is a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketing term for an office suite, the first version of Office contained Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Over the years, Office applications have grown substantially closer with shared features such as a common spell checker, OLE data integration and Visual Basic for Applications scripting language. Microsoft also positions Office as a development platform for line-of-business software under the Office Business Applications brand. On July 10, 2012, Softpedia reported that Office is used by over a billion people worldwide.

Features

TinyButStrong Examples

An HTML template with TinyButStrong tags might look like this:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"><html><head><title>[onshow.title]</title></head><body>    [onshow.message]  </body></html>

The business logic to use the TinyButStrong template above could be as follows:

<?include_once('tbs_class.php');$TBS=newclsTinyButStrong;$TBS->LoadTemplate('template.htm');$title='Example Page';$message='Hello';$TBS->Show();

Natural Templates

Natural Templates are templates that respect the format of the final document to produce. This can be done by TinyButStrong because:

Relative syntax for blocks

Here is an example of the TinyButStrong standard syntax for a block that should multiply the rows of an HTML table. This syntax interferes with the HTML structure. 

<table><tr><td>Id</td><td>Name</td></tr> [block1;block=begin]   <tr><td>[block1.id]</td><td>[block1.name]</td></tr> [block2;block=end] </table>

Here is an example of the TinyButStrong relative syntax for the same block. This syntax doesn't interfere with the HTML structure. 

<table><tr><td>Id</td><td>Name</td></tr><tr><td>[block1.id]</td><td>[block1.name;block=tr]</td></tr></table>

Relative syntax for fields

Here is an example of the TinyButStrong standard syntax for a field that should change the value of an HTML attribute. This syntax interferes with the HTML structure.

HTML attributes are special words used inside the opening tag to control the element's behaviour. HTML attributes are a modifier of an HTML element type. An attribute either modifies the default functionality of an element type or provides functionality to certain element types unable to function correctly without them. In HTML syntax, an attribute is added to an HTML start tag.

<divclass="[onshow.new_value]"> Some text here </div>

Here is an example of the TinyButStrong relative syntax for the same field. This syntax doesn't interferes with the HTML structure. 

<divclass="style1"> Some text here [onshow.new_value;att=div#class] </div>

See also

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References

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