How to write PHP with CSS Syntax
I've recently designed a template system, and wanted to make it as easy as possible for the designers to enter values into PHP functions. So I wrote a little function to allow a CSS style string to be converted into an array.
Regular PHP Method
//The line of code the designer has to edit echo createPosition('header', '100px', '200px'); function createPosition($name, $height, $width) { return '<div id="' . $name . '" style="height:' . $height . ';width:' . $width . ';">' . $name . '</div>'; }
CSS Style PHP
//The line of code the designer has to edit echo createPosition('name:header; width:100px; height:200px'); function attrStringToArray($attr_string) { $attr = array(); foreach(explode(';', $attr_string) AS $attr_temp) { if (strlen(trim($attr_temp)) > 0) { list($name, $value) = explode(':', $attr_temp); $attr[trim($name)] = trim($value); } } return $attr; } function createPosition($attr_string) { $attributes = attrStringToArray($attr_string); return '<div id="' . $attributes['name'] . '" style="height:' . $attributes['height'] . ';width:' . $attributes['width'] . ';">' . $attributes['name'] .'</div>'; }
So you can see that the line of code the designer has to edit is a lot easier to understand with the CSS style PHP. The attributes can also be in any order. This is just one scenario and can be used in many.