Packt Publishing sent me a copy of a book on Smarty templates, probably because of my 2004 article, Get Smarty with PHP Templates.
Check at the bottom of this post for how you can get your own free copy.
It looks like a great book for a couple types of people:
- PHP programmers who want to templatize their projects
- Teams of programmers and designers who don’t want to step on each others’ toes
The book spends a lot of time on the many powerful features included in Smarty. I’ve noted some troubles with templates before, but the benefits far outweigh any problems they cause. Painful and long find-and-replace stints aren’t good for anybody.
Honestly, I’ve lately taken to using frameworks like CodeIgniter, which makes Smarty a bit of an overkill. But learning a framework is almost as involved as learning a new programming language.
Of the templating systems for PHP, Smarty is your best bet, because it’s related to the PHP project. This book is about all there is for Smarty and it does a good job for those who already know PHP.
How do I get me a copy?
You can buy it at Amazon or… drop a comment below.
On Friday, I’ll randomly pick a commenter and give away the book ($40 value, U.S. only, please). Be sure to include one or more ways to contact you (relax–I won’t share your email address).
I remember reading that damn webmonkey article before I knew ya.
I also remember poking around some site that had so much smarty code in no less than 5 billion templates that it kind of defeated the purpose of separating the logic from the presentation.
Yes, there is always room for incorrect usage of a tool. 🙂 As much as I believe in self-teaching through trial and error, this book is a good way to avoid those types of mistakes.