I am in somewhat desperate need for a php based template system. I have had good luck Templatepower but it seems to have broken on my current webhost. I can't really figure out why...so I am looking to try out some other options (not Smarty).

I am looking for a simple system...my alternative will be to just use php includes.

I have tried many ideas to create my own PHP template system. I am still refining it, still haven't plugged in the "conditional" template functionality to it so I still have much to do to be able to share the PHP class with you.

However, I can tell you what it uses to get the job done... You just prepare your HTML templates and store them in a convenient place (like a database table). In your templates, you just assign $variable names where you want your dynamic data to appear.

In your scripts, you just gather the dynamic data into variables or into an array (say $TPL_VARS['variable']) and pass it to a function that simply extract()s $TPL_VARS and eval()s the template string...

VERY simple idea, not original of course but it get's the job done very well.