# Templating

## Contents

- [The Basics](#the-basics)
- [Sections](#sections)
- [Blade Template Engine](#blade-template-engine)
- [Blade Layouts](#blade-layouts)

<a name="the-basics"></a>
## The Basics

Your application probably uses a common layout across most of its pages. Manually creating this layout within every controller action can be a pain. Specifying a controller layout will make your develompent much more enjoyable. Here's how to get started:

#### Specify a "layout" property on your controller:

	class Base_Controller extends Controller {

		public $layout = 'layouts.common';

	}

#### Access the layout from the controllers' action:

	public function action_profile()
	{
		$this->layout->nest('content', 'user.profile');
	}

> **Note:** When using layouts, actions do not need to return anything.

<a name="sections"></a>
## Sections

View sections provide a simple way to inject content into layouts from nested views. For example, perhaps you want to inject a nested view's needed JavaScript into the header of your layout. Let's dig in:

#### Creating a section within a view:

	<?php Section::start('scripts'); ?>
		<script src="jquery.js"></script>
	<?php Section::stop(); ?>

#### Rendering the contents of a section:

	<head>
		<?php echo Section::yield('scripts'); ?>
	</head>

#### Using Blade short-cuts to work with sections:

	@section('scripts')
		<script src="jquery.js"></script>
	@endsection

	<head>
		@yield('scripts')
	</head>

<a name="blade-template-engine"></a>
## Blade Template Engine

Blade makes writing your views pure bliss. To create a blade view, simply name your view file with a ".blade.php" extension. Blade allows you to use beautiful, unobtrusive syntax for writing PHP control structures and echoing data. Here's an example:

#### Echoing a variable using Blade:

	Hello, {{$name}}.
	
#### Echoing function results using Blade:

	{{ Asset::styles() }}

#### Rendering a view:

	<h1>Profile</hi>

	@include('user.profile')

> **Note:** When using the **@include** Blade expression, the view will automatically inherit all of the current view data.

#### Creating loops using Blade:

	<h1>Comments</h1>

	@foreach ($comments as $comment)
		The comment body is {{$comment->body}}.
	@endforeach

#### Other Blade control structures:

	@if (count($comments) > 0)
		I have comments!
	@else
		I have no comments!
	@endif

	@for ($i =0; $i < count($comments) - 1; $i++)
		The comment body is {{$comments[$i]}}
	@endfor

	@while ($something)
		I am still looping!
	@endwhile

#### The "for-else" control structure:

	@forelse ($posts as $post)
		{{ $post->body }}
	@empty
		There are not posts in the array!
	@endforelse

<a name="blade-unless"></a>
#### The "unless" control structure:

	@unless(Auth::check())
		{{ HTML::link_to_route('login', 'Login'); }}
	@endunless

	// Equivalent...

	<?php if ( ! Auth::check()): ?>
		...
	<?php endif; ?>

<a name="blade-comments"></a>
#### Blade comments:
	
	@if ($check)
		{{-- This is a comment --}}
		...
	@endif

> **Note:** Blade comments, unlike HTML comments, are not visible in the HTML source.

<a name="blade-layouts"></a>
## Blade Layouts

Not only does Blade provide clean, elegant syntax for common PHP control structures, it also gives you a beautiful method of using layouts for your views. For example, perhaps your application uses a "master" view to provide a common look and feel for your application. It may look something like this:

	<html>
		<ul class="navigation">
			@section('navigation')
				<li>Nav Item 1</li>
				<li>Nav Item 2</li>
			@yield_section
		</ul>

		<div class="content">
			@yield('content')
		</div>
	</html>

Notice the "content" section being yielded. We need to fill this section with some text, so let's make another view that uses this layout:

	@layout('master')

	@section('content')
		Welcome to the profile page!
	@endsection

Great! Now, we can simply return the "profile" view from our route:

	return View::make('profile');

The profile view will automatically use the "master" template thanks to Blade's **@layout** expression.

**Important:** The **@layout** call must always be on the very first line of the file, with no leading whitespaces or newline breaks.

Sometimes you may want to only append to a section of a layout rather than overwrite it. For example, consider the navigation list in our "master" layout. Let's assume we just want to append a new list item. Here's how to do it:

	@layout('master')

	@section('navigation')
		@parent
		<li>Nav Item 3</li>
	@endsection

	@section('content')
		Welcome to the profile page!
	@endsection

Notice the **@parent** Blade construct? It will be replaced with the contents of the layout's navigation section, providing you with a beautiful and powerful method of performing layout extension and inheritance.