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LiteView - A Lightweight & High-Performance PHP Template Engine

LiteView is a fast, minimal, efficient, single-file PHP template engine focused on runtime performance and developer ergonomics. It offers a very low overhead and an intuitive syntax inspired by other modern template engines while staying dependency-free and easy to embed in any codebase (PHP 8.1+).

🚀 Features that make LiteView stand out

• Blazing-fast compilation – Templates are turned into pure, optimized PHP with near-zero overhead.
• Smart caching – Dependency-aware cache with atomic writes and OPcache refresh ensures instant, safe performance boosts.
• Elegant inheritance and includes – {% extends %}, {% block %}, {% yield %} and {% include %} for clean, DRY layouts – with strict fail-fast validation to catch mistakes early.
• Modern syntax – Write templates using {% if %}, {% foreach %}, {{ variable }}, {{{ raw }}}, and {?= expr ?} – simple, powerful, familiar.
• Conditionals & Loops – Native {% if %}, {% foreach %}, and {% endif %} syntax.
• Safe Output – Escaping with {{ variable }} to prevent XSS attacks.
• Secure by default – Automatic HTML-escaping prevents XSS, while trusted raw output is still available when needed.
• Lightweight by design – Single file, zero dependencies, fully static API. Perfect for performance-critical apps.
• Configurable flexibility – Toggle whitespace trimming, HTML comment removal, and PHP block support.
• Production-ready – Strict error handling, safe path resolution, and reliable cache invalidation built-in.
• Minimal Overhead – Designed for maximum performance with no dependencies.
• Static API – Fully static, no instantiation required.
• Developer friendly – No bootstrapping, no learning curve – just drop in and start rendering.

📦 Installation

Via Composer (recommended):

`

Or manually add the class file (e.g. src/LiteView/LiteView.php) and load it via Composer’s autoloader or a require_once:

Tip: Place your cache directory outside webroot (or deny direct access).

🚀 Quick Start

Capture output as a string:

Layout (layout.html)

Page template (index.html)

🔤 Template Syntax

Quotes: Always use double quotes in {% extends %} and {% include %}.

📖 User Guide

LiteView is designed to be simple, fast, and intuitive. Below you’ll find examples of all supported features so you can get productive immediately.

🔒 Secure Output

Escape variables safely with {{ ... }}:

This prevents XSS by applying htmlspecialchars().

For raw output (no escaping), use triple braces:

⚠ Only use raw output with trusted content.

📂 Template Inheritance

Define reusable layouts with {% extends %}, {% block %}, and {% yield %}.

layout.html

index.html

LiteView enforces strict fail-fast validation:

• Child blocks must match parent yields.
• Duplicate or missing blocks will throw exceptions at compile-time.

📦 Includes

Insert reusable snippets with {% include "..." %}:

Includes are recursive and protected against infinite loops with a depth guard.

❌ Comments

Comment out code with {# ... #}:

Supports nested comments safely.

➡️ Nested comments

LiteView supports nested {# ... #} comments, something most template engines do not.

This means you can safely comment out larger blocks of code without worrying about inner {# ... #} markers breaking the parser:

The entire block is removed cleanly, leaving no stray #} in the output.

🔀 Conditionals

Use native PHP expressions:

🔁 Loops

Iterate with foreach:

✂ Whitespace Trimming

If enabled, LiteView removes redundant whitespace outside <pre>, <code>, <textarea>, <script>, and <style>:

➡ becomes:

🗑 HTML Comment Removal

If enabled, HTML comments are removed (except conditional IE comments):

➡ becomes:

🐘 Embedding PHP

Raw PHP blocks are allowed (configurable via $allowPhpTags):

If disabled, these tags are ignored.

🔥 Clearing the Cache

Force templates to recompile by clearing the cache:

Deletes all compiled .php templates in the cache directory.

🧰 API

Parameters

• \$templatePath: Template root (must resolve via realpath under this root).
• \$cachePath: Directory for compiled templates. Must be writable.
• \$allowPhpTags: If false, {? ... ?} blocks are stripped (safe mode). {?= ... ?} remains a direct echo transform.
• \$trimWhitespace: Collapses runs of whitespace outside sensitive tags: <pre>, <code>, <textarea>, <script>, <style>.
• \$removeHtmlComments: Removes standard HTML comments while preserving IE conditional comments.

💡 Why LiteView?

LiteView exists for developers who want performance and simplicity without the overhead of large engines like Twig or Smarty.

✨ Blazing Fast – Compiles to lean PHP with minimal overhead.

✨ Fail-Fast Safety – Strict inheritance validation prevents silent template bugs.

✨ Zero Dependencies – Pure PHP, fully static API, no instantiation.

✨ Full PHP Power – Use real PHP expressions in conditionals and loops.

✨ Lightweight by Design – Single-file engine, ideal for micro-frameworks and high-traffic apps.

✨ Flexible & Configurable – Toggle whitespace trimming, HTML comment removal, and raw PHP execution.

LiteView is the perfect balance of developer productivity and runtime performance. 🚀

🧬 Strict Inheritance (Fail-Fast)

LiteView resolves blocks at compile time and enforces invariants:

• Missing yield: If a child defines {% block name %} that the parent doesn’t yield, compilation fails.
• Missing block: If the parent contains {% yield name %} that the child doesn’t define, compilation fails.
• Duplicate block: If the child defines the same block twice, compilation fails.

This catches layout mistakes early and keeps runtime hot paths minimal (no runtime block stack).

🗜️ Caching & Invalidation

• Compiled PHP is written to the cache directory using atomic rename.
• Invalidation compares the cache mtime against the max mtime of the source template and all discovered dependencies (extends + recursive include).
• On successful write, LiteView calls opcache_invalidate($file, true) when available and clears PHP’s stat cache for the file.

Deploy note: If your deployment preserves file mtimes (cp -p, rsync --times), changes might not trigger recompilation. Ensure mtimes update or call LiteView::clearCache() post-deploy.

🔐 Security Notes

• Templates are considered trusted code. Avoid granting authoring access to untrusted users.
• {? code ?} executes raw PHP. You can disable it by setting $allowPhpTags = false.
• {?= expr ?} (expression output) always works and cannot be disabled.
• Variable output is HTML-escaped by default ({{ variable }}). Use {{{ ... }}} only with trusted HTML.
• Always place cachePath outside webroot, or restrict access (e.g., with .htaccess).

🧪 Troubleshooting

• "illegal template path" -> The resolved file is outside the template root; check relative paths and root.
• "duplicate block" / "not yielded" / "missing child blocks" -> Inheritance contract violated. Align parent yields and child blocks.
• No recompilation after deploy -> Ensure mtimes change or run clearCache().
• Windows rename failure -> LiteView unlinks the destination and retries automatically.

📈 Performance Tips

• Enable caching in production.
• Keep templates lean and modular – heavy logic belongs in PHP, not templates.
• Place cache outside webroot (or protect with .htaccess).
• OPcache integration is automatic – LiteView invalidates cached PHP files as needed.
• Avoid excessive includes – each include adds a dependency check.
• Enable whitespace trimming and HTML comment removal for production builds.
• Disable $allowPhpTags in production unless you explicitly need raw {? ... ?} blocks.

📦 Packagist

LiteView on Packagist: 👉 https://packagist.org/packages/larsgmortensen/liteview

📜 License

LiteView is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0. See LICENSE for details.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to fork this repository, submit issues, or open a pull request.

✍️ Author

Developed by Lars Grove Mortensen © 2025. Feel free to reach out or contribute!

LiteView – the single-file engine that gives you speed, safety, and simplicity 🚀

🌟 If you find this library useful, give it a star on GitHub! 🌟