Question

I am using PHP and Smarty. I have a simple application that:

• Shows page header
• Checks if user is logged in -> check session
• Checks if user wants to log out -> then clear session
• If logged in shows a menu.
• If not logged in, then challenges user for id/password -> set session
• Shows page footer

Now I want to add the following to header:

• username if logged in
• “login” string if not logged in

To do this seems to require the placement of my PrintHeader function to become complicated.
I now cannot print header, until I know if user is logged in/just logged in/has logged out,
plus header has to go before user/password challenge.

What approach can I use here?
Is it possible to buffer a “not logged in” header, then replace it with “logged if header”
if required.

SmartyApp::PrintHeader();

Application->IsLoggedIn()
Application->DoesUserWantsToLogOut()
Application->IfNotLoggedInThenShowChallengeToUser()
Application->IfLoggedInThenShowFullMenu()

SmartyApp::PrintFooter();

Answer 1

I think a more convenient pattern would be to incorporate conditions within the templates themselves, rather than keeping multiple templates for each possible outcome. For example:

$smarty->assign('user', new User($_SESSION));
$smarty->display('index.tpl');


<!-- header.tpl -->
{if $user->isLogged()}
    <p>Welcome {$username}</p>
{else}
    <p>Please Log In</p>
{/if}


<!-- body.tpl -->
{if $user->isLogged()}
    {include file="menu.tpl"}
{else}
    <p>You must be signed in to view this menu</p>
{/if}

<!-- index.tpl -->
{include file="header.tpl"}
{include file="body.tpl"}
{include file="footer.tpl"}