Inheritance
By combining layouts and sections, Plates allows you to “build up” your pages using predefined sections. This is best understand using an example:
Inheritance example
The following example illustrates a pretty standard website. Start by creating a site template, which includes your header and footer as well as any predefined content sections. Notice how Plates makes it possible to even set default section content, in the event that a page doesn’t define it.
template.php
<html>
<head>
<title><?=$this->e($title)?></title>
</head>
<body>
<img src="logo.png">
<div id="page">
<?=$this->section('page')?>
</div>
<div id="sidebar">
<?php if ($this->section('sidebar')): ?>
<?=$this->section('sidebar')?>
<?php else: ?>
<?=$this->fetch('default-sidebar')?>
<?php endif ?>
</div>
</body>
</html>
With the template defined, any page can now “implement” this layout. Notice how each section of content is defined between the start() and end() functions.
profile.php
<?php $this->layout('template', ['title' => 'User Profile']) ?>
<?php $this->start('page') ?>
<h1>Welcome!</h1>
<p>Hello <?=$this->e($name)?></p>
<?php $this->stop() ?>
<?php $this->start('sidebar') ?>
<ul>
<li><a href="/link">Example Link</a></li>
<li><a href="/link">Example Link</a></li>
<li><a href="/link">Example Link</a></li>
<li><a href="/link">Example Link</a></li>
<li><a href="/link">Example Link</a></li>
</ul>
<?php $this->stop() ?>