[SOLVED] Templates in OOP

[hukadeeze]

I'm learning to use OOP, and I'm having trouble getting a template to work. My architecture is set-up like this:

 

- Application Class

  - Class that set settings

  - Class that controls session variables

  - Class with the applications control logic.

 

Every request the application class loads the other 3. The logic class is a series of switch statements. Before the switch statements I load a class which I've called master template with the method 'display'. It is a header, 2 column, footer layout. In the right column I echo a variable called $maincontent. Within each switch are all the instructions to handle a specific request, like executing a query, organizing the results, building dynamic menus, ect. I'm running into trouble displaying the content. I've created a different class for every page to be displayed. For example, I have a class called ProductsDisplay with the methods product_contents(). I call the the display class from inside it's respective switch.

 

class Logic{

//Load Template
include (mastertemplate.php);
$display = new MasterTemplate;

//Inside Request Specific Switch
include (query.php);
include (products.php);
$query = new Query();
$queryresults = $query -> product_query();
$products = new ProductsDisplay;
$display -> maincontent = $products -> product_contents($queryresults);

//Display
$display -> Display(parameters);
}

 

I'm having trouble returning content from the display classes. I'm using the return function. I don't have problems when I use only html, but I cannot use php inside the return function.

 

class ProductsDisplay{

function product_contents($queryresults){
return 'html and php markup to output query'; <---this returns all markup as regular text.
return require (htmlandphpmarkupincludefile.php); <----this executes correctly, but the results are displayed before the rest of the template.
}
}

How can I return the contents of an executed script from a child class to a parent class?

[hukadeeze]

I answered my own question. I used the combo assign operator to add everything I needed to one variable and then returned the variable.

 

...
$var .= '<p>'.$title.'</p><br />';
$var .= '<p>'.$description.'</p><br />';
....

return $var;