Native PHP Templating

Pragma CMS does not force you to use a templating engine. If you prioritize absolute, zero-overhead execution speed, you can write your views using Native PHP.

Native PHP templates bypass the compilation step entirely. However, with great power comes great responsibility: you are strictly responsible for escaping your own output to prevent Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities.

Accessing Data & Escaping

In a native PHP template, global variables are available directly as PHP objects ($site, $page, $_SESSION['logged_user']).

Always use htmlspecialchars() when outputting user-generated text or database content.

PHP

<div class="article-header">
    <!-- Correctly escaped output -->
    <h1><?= htmlspecialchars($page->entry['title']) ?></h1>

    <!-- Accessing a custom field (e.g., a subtitle) -->
    <p><?= htmlspecialchars($page->entry['fields']['subtitle'] ?? '') ?></p>
</div>

Accessing Controller Data

When your custom controller fetches additional data (e.g., querying 3 related articles) and attaches it to $page->viewData, you access it like this:

PHP

<ul class="related-posts">
    <?php foreach ($page->viewData['related_articles'] as $article): ?>
        <li>
            <a href="<?= getLink('front.articles.show', ['slug' => $article['slug']]) ?>">
                <?= htmlspecialchars($article['title']) ?>
            </a>
        </li>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>

Using Core Rendering Functions

Native PHP templates have direct access to all CMS Helper functions (defined in functions.php).

PHP

<!-- Rendering a responsive image -->
<div class="cover-image">
    <?php renderImage($page->entry['fields']['cover_image_id'], 'xlarge'); ?>
</div>

<!-- Rendering a dynamic menu -->
<nav class="main-nav">
    <?= renderMenu('main-menu', ['wrapper_class' => 'nav-list']) ?>
</nav>

<!-- Rendering a Form -->
<div class="contact-section">
    <?= FormManager::renderForm('contact-us', ['ajax' => true]); ?>
</div>