Smarty: A Great PHP Template Engine
Working with any website, using the Model-view-controller (MVC) design pattern is a must. One way to achieve this is by using templates. Within PHP, there is a large divide on whether using a formal template system is necessary. Most proponents will claim that PHP itself is a template system (see Wordpress and its countless themes). Lately I have come to really like Smarty, a php template engine.
Over at Grooveshark, we’ve been making A LOT of changes. Basically, the brains of Grooveshark is improving with a different database design and backend code while the face of the site stays the same. This is where Smarty has made my life so much easier. All I do is make sure that the same variables are assigned with the same information and Smarty handles the rest.
Smarty has other handy features like caching to compensate for the extra overhead of processing the templates. For really dynamic sites, Smarty provides really fine control of the cache so nothing is ever stale. Smarty is really adaptable so that you can use it to produce your feeds (interchange XML for HTML and you are done). As of right now, I’m really liking Smarty.