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render_html: Helper function to render html elements - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: render_html: Helper function to render html elements (/showthread.php?tid=10382)

render_html: Helper function to render html elements - El Forum - 07-29-2008

[eluser]vendiddy[/eluser]
Hi all! This is a helper function I sometimes use to render html elements when I need to generate them dynamically.

Code:
function render_html($element)
{
    if (is_string($element)) return $element;
    
    $attributes = array();
    $appended_elements = array();
    foreach ($element as $property => $value) {
        if (is_int($property)) {
            $appended_elements[] = render_html($value);
        } elseif ($property{0} != '#') { //Attributes don't start with '#'
            $attributes[] = "$property = \"$value\"";
        }
    }
    
    if (isset($element['#tag'])) {
        return sprintf('<%s%s%s>%s</%s>%s', $element['#tag'],
                                      count($attributes) > 0 ? ' ' : '',
                                      implode('', $attributes),
                                      empty($element['#inner_html']) ? '' : render_html($element['#inner_html']),
                                      $element['#tag'],
                                      implode('', $appended_elements));
    } else {
        return implode('', $appended_elements);
    }
    
}

Here is a function you could stick in a controller to test it:
Code:
function test_render_html()
{
    $this->load->helper('html');
    
    $table = array('#tag' => 'table');
    $table['border'] = '1';
    
    $header = array(
        '#tag' => 'tr',
        '#inner_html' => '<th>A</th><th>B</th><th>C</th>',
    );
    $table['#inner_html'][] = $header;
    
    for ($i = 1; $i <= 5; $i++) {
        $td = array('#tag' => 'td', '#inner_html' => "Row $i");
        $table['#inner_html'][] = array(
            '#tag' => 'tr',
            '#inner_html' => array($td, $td, $td)
        );
    }
    
    echo render_html($table);
    
    echo '<pre>' . print_r($table, TRUE) . '</pre>';
}

Any feedback is appreciated.