What is the recommended way to use templates in the Admin Area when building a custom module?

[Chrisfish]

Hi, I started a custom module using the sample as a base: https://github.com/WHMCS/sample-addon-module

I can't find anything relevant to explain how to use templates for admin page. I tried to load Smarty in different ways, but it always fails.

Thanks,

[twhiting9275]

You won't find the ability to do a ton of template work (any??) in the admin area. Take a look through the docs here for more info on what you can do

You can do a good deal of templating for the client side of things, but the admin side is rather rigid.

[string]

You can use smarty template files within the admin module interface:

function module_output ($vars) {
    $params = array ('key1' => 'value1', 'key2' => 'value2');

    $smarty = new Smarty;
    $smarty->assign('params', $params);
    $smarty->caching = false;
    $smarty->compile_dir = $GLOBALS['templates_compiledir'];
    $smarty->display(__DIR__ . '/template.tpl');
}

This code will use the file "template.tpl" and assign the array $params to the template.

Edited September 12, 2020 by string

[Chrisfish]

Thanks for the feedback, you can indeed use Smarty in the main php file of the module. I want to use different templates for different pages though, and calling Smarty this way doesn't work in the Controller.

I currently worked around this issue this way:

function module_output($vars)
{
  // ...
  $smarty = new Smarty();
  $vars['smarty'] = $smarty;
  $dispatcher = new AdminDispatcher();
  $response = $dispatcher->dispatch($action, $vars);
  echo $response;
}

And then I use it in the controller this way:

class Controller {

    /**
     * An action
     */
    public function index($vars)
    {
		// ...
		$smarty = $vars['smarty'];
        $smarty->assign('version', $vars['version']);
        $smarty->assign('systemUrl', $url);
        $smarty->assign('addonURL', $url . '/admin/addonmodules.php?module=my_addon');
		// ...
        $smarty->caching = false;
        $smarty->compile_dir = $GLOBALS['templates_compiledir'];
        $smarty->display(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../../templates/index.tpl');
	}
}