php2html – Clever HTML Engine

Write your web pages in PHP – not in HTML. php2html is one PHP file with 78 functions that turn short, readable calls into complete, valid HTML5: input fields with labels, hints and validation, sortable tables, collapsible cards, menus, dialogs and whole pages – with translation, light/dark themes and CSRF protection built in. No build step, no template language, no JavaScript framework.

In 30 seconds

<?php
$needFontawesome= '2';                                          // Icons from the CDN
$GLOBALS['gbl_ProgRoot']= 'vendor/ev-soft/clever-html-engine/'; // Where the library is - seen from the page
require 'vendor/ev-soft/clever-html-engine/php2html.lib.php';

htm_Page_(titl:'@Hello');
    htm_Card_(capt:'@Order', icon:'fa-solid fa-cart-shopping');
        htm_Input(labl:'@Name',  vrnt:'text', name:'name', valu:'');
        htm_Input(labl:'@Price', vrnt:'dec2', name:'price', valu:123.45, unit:'<$ ');
        $rows= [['Apple', 3], ['Pear', 5]];
        htm_Table(body:[['@Item', '60%', 'text', '', ['left'],  'item'],
                        ['@Qty',  '40%', 'text', '', ['right'], 'qty']], data:$rows, vhgh:'auto');
    htm_Card_end();
htm_Page_end();

Every text that starts with @ is translated (Danish, German, French and Swedish are included). The card can be folded, resized and moved by the user, the price field accepts only a number with 2 decimals, and the page follows the light or dark theme of the browser.

Why php2html?

• Compact, readable code – one call per element, named arguments with a fixed set of 4-character names (labl, hint, vrnt, valu ...).
• Front end and back end in one file – no templates to keep in sync.
• Complete fields – label, hint, placeholder, validation, unit and number format in one call.
• Advanced tables – sort, filter, row actions, CSV export (Mottie Tablesorter) – or simple search and sort without jQuery.
• Cards and a view bar – collapsible, resizable, movable cards; zoom, full screen, column view, language, notes, page help and theme.
• Multilingual – every @text goes through the translation engine; the user picks the language with a flag.
• Secure by default – escaped output, a CSRF token in every form, a session warning before the session ends.
• Accessible and printable – keyboard use, ARIA names, skip links; printing shows only the content.
• No build step – external libraries (Font Awesome, Tablesorter, TinyMCE, pdf.js) come from a CDN or a local folder, only when asked for.

Install

With Composer

composer require ev-soft/clever-html-engine

Then require 'vendor/ev-soft/clever-html-engine/php2html.lib.php'; in your page, and set $GLOBALS['gbl_ProgRoot'] to the path of that folder seen from the page (as in the example above). The browser loads the library's CSS/JS from that folder, so it must be reachable on the web, and the web server must be able to write its _cache/ folder.

Without Composer

git clone https://github.com/EV-soft/Clever-Html-Engine.git

or download a release and copy the folder to your web server. Requires PHP 8.1 or newer (named arguments).

Built with php2html

• Folder-explorer – a file manager in one PHP file: folder sizes in a tree, file preview (images, PDF, Office, Excel, e-books ...), upload, a transfer basket, ZIP, accounts and rights. Live demo – a good real-world example of htm_Table(), cards and menus.
• The demo and documentation in Proj.demo/ – every function with live examples, e.g. the customer order page.

Have you built something with php2html? Open an issue or a pull request, and it will be listed here.

Documentation

• Online demo and documentation: ev-soft.work/p2h/v1.7.x (use the top menu)
• Project page: ev-soft.github.io/Clever-Html-Engine
• What is new in each version: CHANGELOG.md
• Step by step: Quick_Proj/quickstart.page.php and the *.page.php files in Proj.demo/

Contributing

Ideas, bug reports and pull requests are welcome – open an issue.

License

GPL-3.0 – see LICENSE. © 2019-2026 EV-soft.

Upgrading to 1.7

• Named arguments (labl:'@Name', vrnt:'text') work as before - nothing to do. They are the recommended way to call the library.
• Positional arguments (htm_Input('@Name', '@Enter...', ...)) must be checked: their meaning follows the position. Run the upgrade tool on your code before you replace the library:

  php tools/named_args.php  my_project/            # shows what would be changed
  php tools/named_args.php  my_project/  --write    # changes the files (a copy is saved as *.bak)

  It knows the old and the new order of the 34 functions and rewrites a call to named arguments from the first position whose name has changed - the result works with both 1.6 and 1.7. An old-style argument $labl= '...' becomes labl: '...'. Code examples inside strings are not changed - check them yourself. Code written for 1.6.3 or older: add --from=1.6.3 (in those versions htm_CodeBox() had rtrn as argument 6 - fold since 1.6.4). Do not run the tool on code written for 1.7 - it would read the positions as the old ones.
• The old alias names (vlue, widt, heig, hght) still work.
• 1.7.2: htm_TextArea(), htm_ActionButt(), htm_MultistateButt() and htm_ModalDialog() echo by default - the tool adds rtrn: true where their result is used.

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More about php2html

Your tool to quickly program html code in your PHP web project.

php2html.lib.php also called "HTML clever engine" consists of a PHP library, with 78 core functions that generate HTML code for standard html elements (INPUT / CHECKBOX / RADIO-GROUP / TABLE), as well as other useful functions. You get a complete system to form the frontend part of your program. Built into the system is the easy use of several open-source modules (icons, advanced tables, HTML editor, jquery), and a complete system for changing user languages.

Standards: PHP 8.1+ (named arguments), HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript.

Source should be in UTF-8, with no tabs, indent: 4 chars

When using PHP2HTML your code will be more compact, and easier to read, and you can have both backend and frontend code in one file.

As an example this high level PHP code:

htm_Input(vrnt:'dec2', name:'dec2', valu:$dec2, labl:'@htm_Input(Dec2)',
          hint:'@Demo of htm_Input Field type dec2: number with 2 decimal',
          algn:'center', unit:'<$ ');

will generate this HTML code (with $dec2= 54321, lines broken for reading):

<div class="inpField" id="inpBox1" style="margin: auto; padding: 0 2px 6px; width: 100%; display: inline-block; vertical-align: top;">
  <input type="text" id="id_dec2" name="dec2" value="$ 54 321,00" class="boxStyle"
         style="text-align: center; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600;"
         oninvalid="this.setCustomValidity('Wrong or missing data in htm_Input(Dec2) ! ')" oninput="setCustomValidity('')"
         placeholder="Enter..." pattern="^[^0-9\-]{0,4}\s?-?\d[\d\s.,]*\s?[^0-9]{0,4}$" />
  <abbr class="hint">
    <label for="id_dec2" style="font-size: 12px; vertical-align:top;">
      <div style="white-space: nowrap; margin-left: auto;">htm_Input(Dec2)</div>
    </label>
    <data-hint style="top: 45px; left: 2px;">Demo of htm_Input Field type dec2: number with 2 decimal <br>Unit: $ </data-hint>
  </abbr>
</div>

and looks like this:

Integrated benefits of the system:

• Advanced translation system - choose the language with flags in the view bar
• Block-oriented provides compact code
• Possibility of Font-awesome Icons anywhere
• Hints/Tooltip for all html elements
• Placeholder/validation for all input elements
• Compact layout with advanced collapsible cards - the user can resize and move them, and show them in columns
• Floating view bar: zoom, full screen, column view, language, personal notes, page help and theme
• Light, dark, automatic and own color themes
• Option for user defined system blocks - customize a project without editing the library ($gbl_InitFile, $gbl_CustomCss ...)
• Advanced tables based on Mottie Table Sorter system - or simple search and sort without jQuery (htm_TableTools)
• TinyMCE integrated HTML-editor library
• PDF viewer (pdf.js)
• Optional use of libraries locally or on the Web (CDN)
• Narrow cards suitable for automatic adaptation, and print of the content only
• Easily enter dates with browsers date picker interface
• Security built in: escaped output, CSRF token in every form, session warning before the session ends

About the powerful external libraries: (all optional - jQuery is only needed by Tablesorter and jQuery UI)
jquery                  "jquery"                             Feature-rich JavaScript library
jquery-ui              "jquery-UserInterface"      User interface interactions
tablesorter           "Advanced tables"            Plugin for turning a standard HTML table into a sortable table
font-awesome     "Icons"                              Icon library and toolkit
tinymce                "HTML rich text editor"    Self hosted advanced WYSIWYG HTML editor
dialog-polyfill       "popup dialog"                Dialog element for a popup box
pdf.js                   "PDF viewer"                    Show PDF files in the page

How to start your first project

Save system-files on your web-server in system-folder '{public-URL}/hello'

Create project-folder '/world' and create the file: '{public-URL}/hello/world/first.page.php' with this content (it is also in the repository):

<?php
#   Getting started:
#   How to output your first page...

$sys= $GLOBALS["gbl_ProgRoot"]= '../';     // a system variable: path to the system folder

## Activate needed libraries: Set 0:deactive  1:Local-source  2:WEB-source-CDN  3:Auto: Local/CDN
$needJquery=      '0';
$needTablesorter= '0';
$needPolyfill=    '0';
$needFontawesome= '2';
$needTinymce=     '0';

require_once ($sys.'php2html.lib.php');    // the system library

### PAGE-START:
htm_Page_(titl:'@DEMO', hint:'', info:lang('@PHP2HTML: My first page'), inis:'',
          algn:'center', imag:'../_accessories/_background.png', pbrd:false);

    htm_Caption(labl:'@HELLO WORLD:', icon:'fa-solid fa-earth-europe', hint:'@This is your first page', algn:'center',
                styl:'color:#550000; font-weight:600; font-size: 18px;');

    htm_Card_(capt:'@My first card', icon:'fa-solid fa-star', clas:'cardW480');
        htm_Input(labl:'@Your name', plho:'@Enter...', hint:'@Type your name', vrnt:'text', name:'yourName', valu:'');
        htm_Input(labl:'@Price', hint:'@Enter amount with 2 decimals', vrnt:'dec2', name:'price', valu:123.45, unit:'<$ ');
    htm_Card_end();

### :PAGE_END
htm_Page_end();

Now you can see the page in your browser at URL: '{public-URL}/hello/world/first.page.php'

Another more in-depth way is to follow the instructions in Quick_Proj/quickstart.page.php

Advanced example - see files in folder: '{public-URL}/hello/Proj.demo/'

More information...

You can see a combined documentation & demo and try the functions here: https://ev-soft.github.io/Clever-Html-Engine/

To learn the system and its possibilities, it is recommended to study the *.page.php files in the folder: Proj.demo

Online-Demo:

Get inspired and test the system.

Go to the full window demo and see advanced example: CustomerOrder

Use the top menu to view documentation and examples.

                  PHP is the language to make server-side backend programming.

        PHP2HTML is your tool/framework to make your client-side frontend programming in PHP.
 		
           "HTML clever engine" combines frontend and backend php in a common PHP file.