Storing templates in files instead of in database

Maybe I’m just fighting against a good idea, but I’m a general web developer with a good bit of experience coding front-end stuff. Basically, I want to edit my templates in a proper editor and store them as files instead of in the database so I can using things like version control and not have to mess with constantly copy-and-pasting into the DB. The way I have managed this in the past with modx Evolution was to use a snippet that included a file with php and then calling that snippet in a template, passing it the right filename.

Is that basically the best way to do it? I’m using Revolution now. Am I totally missing the point? Is there any way built in to do things the way I want to?

Thanks

Quote from: donut2d at Sep 23, 2010, 01:20 PM

Is that basically the best way to do it? I’m using Revolution now. Am I totally missing the point? Is there any way built in to do things the way I want to?
Thanks

Not at present, but your snippet should still work in Revolution as long as you change the snippet tag format (though I confess that I haven’t tried it):

I just do local version control... :/
I use my IDE which controls all versions of my documents, when im ready to whack it into my live environment I just copy and paste. I never use the cms for editing code (unless its a trivial spelling mistake or a bracket misplaced etc..).

I have this so far




Usage

[[!IncludeTemplate? &path=`home.tpl`]]


Note: templates_path should be defined as a system setting for your context. EG: YOUR_SITE.com/assets/templates/
I’m working on a solution that reads the context path so you don’t have to put YOUR_SITE.com in the path.

By templates, I assume you mean Tpl Chunks. Templates are elements and you’d have to do more coding to store them in files at this point.

I think you might be better off creating a context setting called base_path and using this:



You wouldn’t need getConfig() and you wouldn’t need the base path in your templates_path string.

Context settings will override any system settings so MODx would get the proper base_path for each context.

I assume you know that standard snippets like Wayfinder and getResources won’t use your files because they expect the name of the Tpl Chunk rather than its path.

I’m not recommending this, but In theory, you could rewrite $modx->getChunk() to get your Tpl Chunk files if they exist instead of pulling them from the DB. Then all snippets would get your files and process them normally and you could just use getChunk() in your own snippets. The changes could be overwritten when you upgrade, though.

You can review this short article here from the Docs: http://rtfm.modx.com/display/revolution20/Managing+Resources+and+Elements+via+SVN

I am pretty sure this will work:

Your Include snippet will be:
You snippet call would be:

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. Most everyone suggested a variation of what I’m already doing. I was actually looking to see if there was a better way, but I guess it’s the best/only way. Here’s my LoadTemplate snippet:

@ smashingred I tried your include snippet call to check out developing in Netbeans I found it added a 1 to the end of every chunk call, template calls seemed ok.

Revo 2.0.2 Advanced Install
I am on Win XP
localhost
wamp
Apache 2.2.1
Php 5.3
Mysql 5.1.36

I copied and pasted your code and changed path to local git repo.

It was a lot of trouble IMHO to do what I normally do in database and still did not work.

I do not usually use an IDE for template editing but thought I would give it a try.

Quote from: allanb at Sep 29, 2010, 04:53 PM

@ smashingred I tried your include snippet call to check out developing in Netbeans I found it added a 1 to the end of every chunk call, template calls seemed ok.

@ allenb, if the snippet your are "including" has a return statement, the value it returns will replace the tag. If it doesn’t have a return statement, however, the tag will be replaced with ’1’ indicating a successful include.

This is the post I took my code from.

Quote from: smashingred at Sep 27, 2010, 07:55 PM

You can review this short article here from the Docs: http://rtfm.modx.com/display/revolution20/Managing+Resources+and+Elements+via+SVN

I am pretty sure this will work:

Your Include snippet will be:

<?php
if (!file_exists($file)) return '';  
$o = include $file;  
return $o;  

You snippet call would be:

[[include? &file=`/path/to/my/svn/checkout/snippet.php`]]

And as you can see it has a return statement.
It does return the contents of the chunk plus the ’1’
I found two ’1’s in the displayed resource page with two calls to the ’include’ snippet
Could this be a bug.
Quote from: allanb at Sep 29, 2010, 04:53 PM

My Details
Revo 2.0.2 Advanced Install
I am on Win XP
localhost
wamp
Apache 2.2.1
Php 5.3
Mysql 5.1.36

I copied and pasted your code and changed path to local git repo.