Smarty is dead? alternative engine to migrate to

I see that Smarty hasn't had any updates in 2019, is it dead?

If yes, then maybe someone could post an alternative php templating engine, so we can start migrating.

Thank you.

[worldtok]

Try laravel blade

[matks]

If yes, then maybe someone could post an alternative php templating engine, so we can start migrating.

https://twig.symfony.com/ is very nice and is being done by the same devs behind https://symfony.com/

[nxtpl]

It's so sad when the author drops development of something that is still very popular and so advanced. I have few Smarty books on my shelf and I have used Smarty in hundreds of web applications.

I usually avoid projects that haven't been in development since a long time, other potential users might see it the same way.

It only shows that the developer can't handle his own creation, and even worse, keeps it for himself instead of passing the project for some other people to maintain it properly :(

[matks]

It only shows that the developer can't handle his own creation, and even worse, keeps it for himself instead of passing the project for some other people to maintain it properly :(

So, I have no connection to Smarty creator, Monte Ohrt, but I think your words are every harsh and very wrong.

Remember that all of this (smarty, the project, the website, the docs) is done for free by Monte and the wonderful other people who contribute(d) to Smarty such as @uwetews. For free. These people have been taking care of the templating engine you seem to love so much for no money at all, basically giving you and thousand of others their time. To my knowledge, no company is involved into Smarty development so they got no money at all from this project. It seems to be a few sponsors but they are not paying contributors to work on this.

So it's actually a miracle these people could work on this project for so long for free while taking care of their family and working (because they need to eat) their job. We should give them thousand thanks for the amazing work they did. Instead of saying "this is so sad, smarty is dead now" we should say "we are thankful for benefiting for this great tool for free and for so long, thanks to the time given by these wonderful people" and give these people hugs.

By the way, this miracle has a name. It's called the opensource miracle and it happens everyday. There are hundred of critical tools and libraries that only live thanks to the time given by their maintainers, most of the time nobody acknowledges it.

You can read the wonderful article https://onezero.medium.com/the-internet-relies-on-people-working-for-free-a79104a68bcc about this system.

So please dont say bad things about the authors of Smarty. As a long-term user of the library, you cant say that. You should be grateful instead.
And if you think it's too bad the project is dying, please tell me what have you done to prevent it from dying ? Did you contribute ? Did you proofread the docs ? Did you donate to the project ? If you did nothing of these things, then you have a responsibility in this project fading away.

Also if you want the project to continue living, then ... just fork it. That is one of strengths of opensource: a project only dies when nobody is willing to maintain it. Click on this "fork" button at the top right of this page, and you can start maintaing this project with your own time and energy instead of the time and energy of the wonderful people who worked on Smarty.

[nxtpl]

Okay, I didn't want it to sound as bad as it did. I'm sorry for that.

I am really full of respect to the authors and thankful to all the other people involved into Smarty development. The project is great - simple and advanced at the same time, and works as it should. But even a good code needs to be maintained, as the times change (and when new PHP releases come out). It needs to be continued!

It's not good when people start searching for a new project, only because the current one seems to be forgotten. I don't believe that fresh templating engines could challenge Smarty (yet).

Yes, I know what open-source is. I didn't propose my own pull requests as I don't miss any functionalities so far. But seeing some of them not pulled in for months is also not encouraging for potential developers.

It would be good to have some updated roadmap, to show people what needs to be done. The forum posts are not good for this, it should be clearly visible.

I would love to contribute to Smarty if there is a spark of hope to make it running again. Donation of few bucks won't change much, I'd like to really help it. Maybe I can work on the main website to update it in terms of looks and become mobile-friendly? On modern monitors it's too thin, on mobile devices it's hard to use.
I could also proofread the docs, but they seem okay at the first sight.

[matks]

Okay, I didn't want it to sound as bad as it did. I'm sorry for that.

Thanks 😄

Well, the answer should now come from the Smarty founders and maintainers, but I'm afraid they are quite gone :/ .

A few points I'd like to raise:

1. I tried to contribute, but I met some horrible attitude in the Smarty forums. That put me in the defensive and in no mood to contribute.

2. The Smarty website and forum, look like they have been hacked. Full of "hacky" and doggy adverts. It gives the wrong idea to potential future users, corporate users immediately prefer something more professional looking.

3. Overall, there is little information from the developers. Maybe the project is dead, or maybe not, but nobody has bothered to inform the public about it.

4. Based on the current situation, I'll keep using Smarty in existing projects but all my new projects will use Twig instead of Smarty.

Just my experience and thoughts.

[nxtpl]

@robo2bobo - exactly, these are the things to be resolved 👍 And I could handle the website and informational part.
Hopefully the maintaners notice this feed someday and involve into our discussion.

[criocere]

I like this tools and I am not the only one, I use it in all my projects and I can not believe that it is dead without information. I can understand that the authors have now some others things to do but that would be great to have informations.

I had a quick look on forks (521). Have you identified some serious?

[ophian]

Be patient, or fork.
We are talking about one single developer, see https://github.com/smarty-php/smarty/graphs/contributors.
We all are worried, but all we know and from Uwe Tews himself is in: #353
The rest are rumors. So either wait, fork or leave to another Engine with more developers.

[uwetews]

Dear Smarty user
Please be informed that a couple month ago I got some serious health problems (stroke) and I immediately was unable to do anything.
It took me very long time to recover.
Finally I will be able to start working again on the Smarty project some time this week.

[ophian]

Hi Uwe
Presumably speaking for others too, I am really glad to hear that you have made it through this hard time of yours and am happy that you are going to continue your work on Smarty! Its just software, but a good one! :) Wish you all health!

[nxtpl]

Hello @uwetews, great to see you again! :) We all hope you'll get well!
If I can help you modernize the Smarty website, just let me know - anytime :)

[criocere]

Hi Uwe, thanks for giving us some news. Health first and hoping you will get better.

[simplexx]

Hello @uwetews , glad to hear that you are still working on Smarty! I really love it and we use it for a huge project. I suspected that something bad happened, because it was a long period with no activity. I hope you will get better soon! Thanks for your work.