🚀 CommentTemplate - A Powerful Template Engine for Flight PHP #665

KnifeLemon · 2025-10-17T09:23:11Z

KnifeLemon
Oct 17, 2025

Hello! 👋

I'd like to share CommentTemplate, a feature-rich PHP template engine I've developed that integrates seamlessly with Flight PHP and offers some unique capabilities that go far beyond basic templating.

🎯 Why CommentTemplate?

While working on Flight projects, I found myself needing a template engine that could handle complex asset management, provide flexible loading strategies, and maintain clean, maintainable code. CommentTemplate was born from this need, offering a comprehensive solution that rivals much larger frameworks.

✨ Comprehensive Feature Set

🔧 Seamless Flight Integration

Works out-of-the-box with Flight PHP
No complex configuration required
Respects Flight's simplicity philosophy

📦 Advanced Asset Compilation

Automatic CSS/JS minification using matthiasmullie/minify
Smart caching with automatic invalidation
Asset directives work inside CSS/JS files too!

⚡ Flexible JavaScript Loading Strategies

<!--@js(app.js)-->                    <!-- Standard blocking load -->
<!--@jsAsync(analytics.js)-->         <!-- Non-blocking, executes immediately -->
<!--@jsDefer(utils.js)-->             <!-- Non-blocking, waits for HTML parsing -->
<!--@jsTop(critical.js)-->            <!-- Load in <head> -->
<!--@jsTopAsync(tracking.js)-->       <!-- Async in <head> -->
<!--@jsTopDefer(polyfill.js)-->       <!-- Defer in <head> -->
<!--@jsSingle(widget.js)-->           <!-- Skip minification -->
<!--@jsSingleAsync(ads.js)-->         <!-- Skip minification + async -->
<!--@jsSingleDefer(social.js)-->      <!-- Skip minification + defer -->

🎨 CSS Management Options

<!--@css(styles.css)-->               <!-- Minified and cached -->
<!--@cssSingle(critical.css)-->       <!-- Single file, not minified -->

🏗️ Template System

Layout inheritance similar to Blade/Twig
Template imports for modular design
Template comments that never reach the browser

{* This comment is completely removed from output *}
{* 
   Multi-line debug comments
   for development notes
*}

🖼️ Asset Processing Magic

<!--@base64(images/icon.png)-->       <!-- Inline as data URI -->
<!--@asset(images/photo.jpg)-->       <!-- Copy to public directory -->
<!--@assetDir(fonts)-->               <!-- Copy entire directories -->

🔥 Unique: Asset Directives in CSS/JS Files

This is where CommentTemplate really shines! You can use asset directives inside your CSS and JavaScript files:

In your CSS:

@font-face {
    font-family: 'CustomFont';
    src: url('<!--@asset(fonts/custom.woff2)-->') format('woff2');
}

.hero-bg {
    background: url('<!--@asset(images/hero-bg.jpg)-->');
}

.icon {
    background: url('<!--@base64(icons/star.svg)-->'); /* Inlined! */
}

In your JavaScript:

const apiEndpoint = '<!--@asset(config/api.json)-->';
const logoData = '<!--@base64(images/logo.png)-->';

🎛️ Variable System with Filters

{$title|escape}                      <!-- HTML escaping -->
{$content|nl2br|trim}               <!-- Chained filters -->
{$name|default='Guest'}              <!-- Default values -->
{$title|upper|concat=' - Admin'}     <!-- Transform and concatenate -->

🚀 Quick Example with Flight

<?php
require_once 'vendor/autoload.php';

use KnifeLemon\CommentTemplate\Engine;

// Initialize with Flight
$template = new Engine();

Flight::route('/', function() use ($template) {
    $template->render('homepage', [
        'title' => 'Welcome to Flight + CommentTemplate!',
        'user' => Flight::get('user'),
        'posts' => $posts
    ]);
});

Flight::start();

Template (homepage.php):

<!--@layout(layout)-->
<!--@css(css/bootstrap.css)-->
<!--@css(css/custom.css)-->
<!--@jsDefer(js/app.js)-->
<!--@jsAsync(js/analytics.js)-->

{* Page-specific styles and scripts *}
<!--@cssSingle(css/homepage-critical.css)-->

<div class="hero">
    <h1>{$title|escape}</h1>
    <p>Welcome back, {$user.name|default='Guest'}!</p>
</div>

<section class="posts">
    {* This comment explains the loop logic *}
    <!--@import(components/post-list)-->
</section>

🎨 What Makes It Special?

1. Intelligent Asset Management

9 different JS loading strategies for optimal performance
CSS minification and caching with smart invalidation
Asset copying with automatic path resolution
Base64 inlining for small assets

2. Developer Experience

Template comments for clean code documentation
Chained filters for complex data processing
Asset directives in CSS/JS for unified workflow
Clean HTML output (empty lines automatically removed)

3. Performance Focused

Cached compilation with modification time checking
Strategic script placement (head vs body)
Async/defer support for non-blocking resources
Single file options when you need unminified assets

4. Production Ready

Comprehensive test suite (23 tests, 76 assertions)
PHPStan level max code analysis
MIT licensed and actively maintained

📊 Package Stats

🔗 Links

📦 Packagist: https://packagist.org/packages/knifelemon/comment-template
📚 GitHub: https://github.com/KnifeLemon/CommentTemplate
⚡ Installation: composer require knifelemon/comment-template
🛠️ Uses: matthiasmullie/minify for asset compilation

💭 Community Feedback Welcome!

I'd love to hear from the Flight community:

Would these features be useful for your Flight projects?
Which asset loading strategies do you find most interesting?
Any additional features you'd like to see?
Integration improvements for Flight-specific workflows?

The package is actively maintained with regular updates. I'm particularly proud of the asset directive system that works inside CSS/JS files - it's something I haven't seen in other template engines!

Let's build better Flight apps together! 🎉

Built with ❤️ for the Flight PHP community

n0nag0n · 2025-10-17T12:54:49Z

n0nag0n
Oct 17, 2025
Maintainer

Hey that's pretty cool. I personally won't use it cause I was scarred by a framework years ago that served a js file in a similar way, but my experience doesn't have to be everyones experience :)

So why don't you add this to the flightphp/docs repo? Go ahead and edit the awesome_plugins file to put this on there and then following a similar "feel" for the other plugin pages, then add your page with how to install, what it's for, use cases with flight, how to connect it to a flight instance etc, so users know how to dive in quickly with your plugin.

Thank you a TON for help contribute to Flight's mission. I appreciate it very much :)

1 reply

KnifeLemon Oct 17, 2025
Author

Of course! I'll work on it as soon as possible :)

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🚀 CommentTemplate - A Powerful Template Engine for Flight PHP #665

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KnifeLemon Oct 17, 2025

🎯 Why CommentTemplate?

✨ Comprehensive Feature Set

🔧 Seamless Flight Integration

📦 Advanced Asset Compilation

⚡ Flexible JavaScript Loading Strategies

🎨 CSS Management Options

🏗️ Template System

🖼️ Asset Processing Magic

🔥 Unique: Asset Directives in CSS/JS Files

🎛️ Variable System with Filters

🚀 Quick Example with Flight

🎨 What Makes It Special?

1. Intelligent Asset Management

2. Developer Experience

3. Performance Focused

4. Production Ready

📊 Package Stats

🔗 Links

💭 Community Feedback Welcome!

Replies: 1 comment · 1 reply

Uh oh!

n0nag0n Oct 17, 2025 Maintainer

Uh oh!

KnifeLemon Oct 17, 2025 Author

KnifeLemon
Oct 17, 2025

Replies: 1 comment 1 reply

n0nag0n
Oct 17, 2025
Maintainer

KnifeLemon Oct 17, 2025
Author