How to improve readability of HTML code embeded in PHP

Question

Suppose we have something like this:

<?php
while(some statement here)
{
    echo "some HTML here";
    //..................
}
?>

As you know we can do it like this :

<?php
while(some statement here)
{?>
    some HTML here
    ..............
<?php
} ?>

Now,What if I have something like this?

<?php
function example(){
    $out="";
    while(some statement here)
    {
        $out.="some HTML here";
        $out.="some other HTML here";
        //.......................
    }
    return $out;
}
?>

How can I get the HTML code out of <?php ?> so it'll be more readable and can be edited easily using an editor like NotePad++ ? Thanks in advance

Answer 1

So if you want better syntax highlighting you need to close the php tags. Output buffering is a clean way to do this and it lets you maintain syntax highlighting in notepad ++. http://php.net/manual/en/book.outcontrol.php

<?php
function example(){
    $foo = "Hello Again";
    ob_start();
    while(some statement here)
    {
        ?>
        <div id="somediv">Hello!</div>
        <div id="somephpvar"><?php echo $foo;?></div>
        <?php 
    }
    return ob_get_clean();
}
?>

Answer 2

Short answer: Use output buffer control ( http://php.net/manual/en/book.outcontrol.php )

Example

<?php

function example(){
    ob_start();

    $i = 0;
    while($i < 10)
    {
        ?>
        Hello<br/>
        <?php
        $i++;
    }

    $output = ob_get_contents();
    ob_end_clean();

    return $output;
}


echo example();

Long answer: You'd want to use a template engine like Twig ( https://twig.sensiolabs.org/ ) to have HTML outside of PHP code completely (of course with a lot more of benefit)

Answer 3

If you want to write the function yourself, the best way is using output buffering control , eg:

<?php
function() {
    ob_start();
    ?>
     <h1>Hello world</h1>
    <?php
    return ob_get_clean();
}

However, it is higly recommended that you use a template library, such as mustache . Most PHP frameworks include their own template mechanism; have a look at laravel , and cakePHP