Sparse - Templates (Overview)

Although there are three main types of templates used by Sparse, each of them shares the same basic layout. You can have any amount of HTML tags between the start and end of your HTML file, and you can also have one or more templates in the same file. Templates are defined as being inside sqltemplate tags. So, your file could have two templates in it, and look like this:

<?php
include('Sparse.php');
SparseThisPage('username', 'password');
?>
<html>

<sqltemplate ...>

</sqltemplate>

<sqltemplate ...>

</sqltemplate>
</html>

Now let's take a look at the tags that go inside the individual templates. The first important tag is sqlrow. There must be exactly one of these tags inside every template. The code inside the row is repeated for every row that's displayed - this can be the data that's displayed, or new rows to enter for add templates. Most Sparse tags must either appear inside the sqlrow (meaning it also would be repeated per row) or outside it (meaning it would not be repeated) but not both.

The second important tag is sqlfield. Without this tag you couldn't do anything with the data! sqlfield tags indicate where you want the data to go - again, either the existing data, or a place to enter new data (or, when editing data, both!).

The final important tag is sqlaction. These tags are replaced by submit buttons depending on where they are and what kind of template they're in.

Here's a simple example of how one might go about displaying the contents of a table. The following code will print out the entire contents of the "employees" table, showing the employee name, ID, and salary, and allowing the user to edit those values:

<?php
include('Sparse.php');
SparseThisPage('username', 'password');
?>
<html>
<h2 align="center">Employee Database</h2>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Employee Name</th>
<th>Employee ID</th>
<th>Employee Salary</th>
</tr>
    <sqltemplate type="edit" database="myDB" tables="employees">
    <sqlrow>
    <tr>
    <td><sqlfield name="employeeName" /></td>
    <td><sqlfield name="employeeID" /></td>
    <td><sqlfield name="employeeSalary" /></td>
    </tr>
    </sqlrow>
</table>
<sqlaction type="edit" />
    </sqltemplate>
</span>

The first h2, table, and table row will be displayed exactly once.
Next comes the sqltemplate tag, whose attributes tell us we want to display current data as well as allowing the user to edit it.
Everything between sqlrow tags, i.e. the table row defined there, will be repeated for every row of data we display.
Each sqlfield tag will display a widget (probably a text field) populated with the data for that field in that row.
Finally, the sqlaction tag, which appears outside sqlrow, would turn into a button that reads "Edit Values", allowing the user to edit all the values at once. Depending on the type attribute of that tag and the template type, sqlaction can also add new information, delete rows, or navigate forward or backwards in the data.

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