Smarty is a templating engine for PHP. Designers who are used to working with HTML files can work with Smarty templates, which are HTML files with simple tags while programmers work with the underlying PHP code. The Smarty engine brings the code and templates together. The result of all this is that designers can concentrate on designing, programmers can concentrate on programming, and they don’t need to get in each others way so much. Even if you are developing a site on your own, Smarty is a powerful way to make your code clearer to you and others, as well as easier to debug and modify later. This book is a comprehensive guide to all aspects of using Smarty. It will help you to: * Install and configure Smarty on your Web server * Understand how Smarty affects your web site architecture, and build site foundations that make the most of what Smarty offers * Designers will learn to work with templates that contain variables and logic, to modify layouts or content of Smarty web sites * See how Smarty caching can improve the performance of your sites * Develop custom Smarty functions and plug-ins to incorporate into your templates Using a step-by-step approach based on realistic examples, the expert authors show you how to use Smarty in your own PHP development.

A step-by-step guide to building PHP web sites and applications using the Smarty templating engine
- Bring the benefits of Smarty to your PHP programming
-Give your designers the power to modify content and layout without PHP programming
-Produce code that is easier to debug, maintain, and modify
-Useful for both Smarty developers and users

Smarty is a templating engine for PHP. Designers who are used to working with HTML files can work with Smarty templates, which are HTML files with simple tags while programmers work with the underlying PHP code. The Smarty engine brings the code and templates together. The result of all this is that designers can concentrate on designing, programmers can concentrate on programming, and they don’t need to get in each others way so much. Even if you are developing a site on your own, Smarty is a powerful way to make your code clearer to you and others, as well as easier to debug and modify later.

This book is a comprehensive guide to all aspects of using Smarty. It will help you to:
-Install and configure Smarty on your Web server
- Understand how Smarty affects your web site architecture, and build site foundations that make the most of what Smarty offers
- Designers will learn to work with templates that contain variables and logic, to modify layouts or content of Smarty web sites
- See how Smarty caching can improve the performance of your sites
- Develop custom Smarty functions and plug-ins to incorporate into your templates

Using a step-by-step approach based on realistic examples, the expert authors show you how to use Smarty in your own PHP development. The book is ideal for PHP developers who are new to Smarty, and for web designers who are working with PHP developers who are using Smarty.

Okay - pitty about the errors
This book is a good starter - just so long as you don’t take the code examples literally; it’s riddled with syntax errors that can have the beginner confused and think they don’t understand when really it’s the book which is in error.

I feel that this book is a good backup for on-line resources rather than used on its own.

Good Reference but not everything
I found this book to be a good reference if you are not already familiar with Smarty. It gives you the basics but doesn’t get too involved.
I would recommend having some PHP experience first before you buy it.
I bought it to be used as an additional programming help guide to work with X-Cart. It’s been good for that.
Overall, it’s worth the price.

A book to quickly master Smarty
You are looking for a simple solution to separate your PHP code from the graphics of your website? You work in a team composed of coders and graphists? Then you have already thought about templating!

Without a doubt, Smarty currently is the best templating engine available on the market. It is not famous for its simplicity but for its completeness.

This book is on the same page as the others I had the chance to read from the same editor (Packt Publishing). It was written for a wide public (from beginners to advanced) and it covers most of the subject. Thanks to this book, you will have the ability to quickly master Smarty and to use it during all your projects without many problems.

The introduction does not only handle Smarty, but rather the templating philosophy. You will also find installation walkthroughs, structural and logical Smarty internal processes.
The main part of the book is divided into two parts. The first is directed towards designers with, for the most part, creation of Template files and usage of Smarty functions. A whole chapter is dedicated to application debugging.
The other section is aimed at programmers, with details and explanation on each variable or method used in Smarty. This section is really useful on the long term, since you can come back to it any time.

You now have all the knowledge to start templating on your own, and you won’t forget the experience you gained through explanations, step by step, as well as sources illustrating these pages.

You can now go further using Smarty’s power by reading the following chapters about caching, plugins usage, filters and internationalization of your website.

To sum up, this is a very good book for those who are interested in Smarty and very useful for those who are already using it. But watch out: Smarty is not to be used in every website. I would like to highlight, however, that its use is far too complex to be used in a static website: you will need some dynamic components to notice any improvement. Actually, Smarty needs you to learn a new language: what you know how to do in PHP most probably has a Smarty equivalent, so that you will need a transition time.

[...]

Keep this close when using Smarty
Finally a Smarty book goes to print and it is not a bad start. If you are new to Smarty, either as a designer or developer, you will find worth in this book. There are some cool tips and tricks and it will give you are starting point to spark your creativity with using Smarty. Creativity both in design and indeed finding creative solutions to your development goals.

Amazing Smarty book
No need to hide it, "Smarty PHP Template Programming and Application" is an excellent book!



Whether you are graphic designer or developer, this book is for you, thanks to a clear separation of the needs.

Every step is exposed in details : installation, utility and the way to work with Smarty is clearly explained.

You can add to this a detailed explanation of the various built-in variables and methods, differents way for managing the cache, filters and plugins,... all this makes this book a very good one, covering from he most basic to the most advanced methods.



Moreover, there’s a complete chapter on "website internationalization" with Smarty.



To summarize, and I guess you already understood, this is an excellent book that any developer/designer who works with Smarty must read.

Amazing Smarty book
No need to hide it, "Smarty PHP Template Programming and Application" is an excellent book!

Whether you are graphic designer or developer, this book is for you, thanks to a clear separation of the needs.
Every step is exposed in details : installation, utility and the way to work with Smarty is clearly explained.
You can add to this a detailed explanation of the various built-in variables and methods, differents way for managing the cache, filters and plugins,... all this makes this book a very good one, covering from he most basic to the most advanced methods.

Moreover, there’s a complete chapter on "website internationalization" with Smarty.

To summarize, and I guess you already understood, this is an excellent book that any developer/designer who works with Smarty must read.

Great guide to PHP & Smarty
If you’re looking for a good book on Smarty, this one should definitely be on your list. This book takes you through every feature that Smarty offers in an easy-to-understand and practical way, with plenty of clear and concise examples to make it even easier to understand.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a developer who wants to start using Smarty or if you’re a designer who has to start working with Smarty, this book is a great resource for both and thanks to a clear division in the book it’s easy to learn about Smarty as a developer or designer.

There aren’t many negative things to say about this book, but it isn’t perfect either. Sometimes things are explained multiple times, with might cause some slight annoyance, and in some cases parts of an example aren’t explained at all, which leaves you wondering what something is used for.

To sum it all up, this book is certainly worth the money, and I can definitely recommend it if you’re looking to get started with Smarty.

Smarty
Smarty. The title is just as short and simple as the book itself. The first few chapters cover why you would want to use Smarty. This has always been the biggest slowdown of Smarty adoption: why use a template language? Isn’t PHP already a template language? Isn’t Smarty slow? What does the workflow look like? All of these questions are covered in these first few chapters. (The speed of Smarty is covered at the end in more detail, too.)

After that, the rest of the book covers the actual Smarty template language. There are two main sections that teach the reader: one section for template designers and one for programmers -- just like how the Smarty homepage is set up. Basically, each section covers the exact same material that’s on the Smarty homepage, only in a more logical progression. Rather than a standard reference-manual format, these sections are laid out with several real-word projects and examples.

If you’re new to Smarty, or have thought about learning it, I would definitely buy this book. However, if you’re already familiar with the language, you really won’t gain anything new here -- except printed documentation, which is always nice. Overall, Smarty is a great book for beginners.

Unfortunately there is nothing else!
I am new to PHP and templating technology. I have used ASP.NET and ASP, but have started doing some work with LAMP, so I figured I would try to make my work easier with Smarty.
I did a quick search for Smarty here on Amazon and could only find one book on Smarty, so I bought it, the E version anyway. After reading a few pages I found that I could not stand the way the author writes.
I have read quite a bit of technical books, this definately rates among the worst I have read. The author fails to make his subject interesting. I understand this is not a novel, but still, I believe that technical writers, above all, need to make the subject interesting.