On the Smashing Magazine site today there's a new post introducing you to templating in PHP applications. They cover both the creation of a simple, custom templating library as well as using a more widely known too - Twig.

In this article, we’ll cover how to separate the view of your PHP application from its other components. We’ll look at why using such an architecture is useful and what tools we can use to accomplish this. [...] To fully benefit from this article, you should already know how to write and run your own PHP scripts on a Web server (i.e. using Apache).

They start with the very basics of templating, mostly pointing out how it reduces the dependency of having layout code directly in your application's logic. It makes things easier to reuse and makes for better code structure in the long run. They mention other templating engines like Smarty, PHPTAL and Twig, but focus in on the last for their code samples. They show basic templating, making reusable templates, applying filters and working with simple control structures.

On PHPBuilder.com today there's a new article looking at five PHP templating engines that they think are worth a look for use in your next project (or maybe in a current one).

In this article I'll introduce five of PHP's most popular templating engines, providing you with a basis for continuing your own investigations. Keep in mind however that this list is by no means definitive; if you have experience using a templating engine not discussed here, please tell us about it in the comments!

The five template engines the author chose to spotlight are:

• Smarty
• Dwoo
• Twig
• Savant3
• PHPTal

Each comes with a description of its major features and a code snippet or two showing it in use.

In the CakePHP blog, The Bakery, there are three new items posted - all three tutorials on different topics:

• The first is a tutorial that shows how to integrate PHPTAL templates into a Cake application (via a custom PhptalView class)
• Next up is a simple one - the creation of a helper to work with multiple checkboxes in a form .
• Lastly, there's a tutorial that shows an implementation for a counterCache object in a simple application.

In the CakePHP blog, The Bakery, there are three new items posted - all three tutorials on different topics:

• The first is a tutorial that shows how to integrate PHPTAL templates into a Cake application (via a custom PhptalView class)
• Next up is a simple one - the creation of a helper to work with multiple checkboxes in a form .
• Lastly, there's a tutorial that shows an implementation for a counterCache object in a simple application.