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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-15T18:44:06+00:00

I just reformatted the default layout of my CakePHP application. I eliminated as much

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I just reformatted the default layout of my CakePHP application. I eliminated as much in-line html as possible by putting almost everything inside the html helper methods.

It was fun, but I’m wondering what benefit I’ve gained from this exercise, if any?

<?php
    $output = implode("\n", array(
        $html->docType(),
        $html->tag('html', implode("\n", array(
            $html->tag('head', implode("\n", array(
                $html->charset(),
                $html->tag('title', 'Title For App'),
                $html->css('css', NULL, array('media' => 'screen,print')),
                $html->css('print', NULL, array('media' => 'print')),
                $html->script(array('cufon', 'jquery','external'))
            ))),
            $html->tag('body', implode("\n", array(
                $html->tag('div', $content_for_layout, array('id' => 'wrapper')),
                $html->scriptBlock('Cufon.now();')
            )))
        )), array('xmlns' => 'http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'))
    ));
    echo $output;
?>

I suppose at least it looks nice and compact, and is pretty readable. What pitfalls should I be aware of in this scenario? Should I be aware of any speed issues?

I like it — and I don’t.

I guess I need convincing one way or the other.

If you’re wondering, the implodes put nice line breaks in the html when viewing the source.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I had this discussion in the Google group some years back. Eventually, you’ll realise that it doesn’t make a lot of difference which way you do it until you need to programatically manipulate stuff – then, if you went the HTML route, you’ll find your code peppered with <?php & ?> or string concatenations or double quote variable substitutions.

    Now, many applications down the line, I prefer maintaining the ones with more helper than markup.

    There is a lot of HTML that isn’t covered by helpers, so you can’t avoid a mix, but you can minimise complexity and confusion by using helpers wherever possible. When you start using forms, you get a lot of security stuff thrown in and IDs and NAMEs formatted the way CakePHP prefers.

    PHP and CakePHP are built for this. Why only use half a language or half a framework?

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