PHP - Replacing multiple sets of placeholders while looping through arrays

Question

I am working on a piece of code to help me create an email body based on values scraped from a website. But I am having problems replacing placeholders with values.

My "replace placeholder" code looks like this:

foreach ($products as $productID) 
{
    $product_array = scrape_product($scrape_url, $productID);

    foreach ($product_array as $key => $value)
    {
        $pattern = '/\#' . $key . '\#/';
        $email_body = preg_replace($pattern, $value, $email_body, $product_count);
    }
}

The function scrape_product($scrape_url, $productID); returns a number of arrays that looks like this:

$product_array = array(
    "PRODUCTID" => $ID,
    "TITLE"     => $productname,
    "ONELINER"  => $oneliner,
    "PRICE"     => $price,
    "PRICE_ORG" => $price_org,
    "DISCOUNT"  => $discount,
    "IMAGE"     => $image,
    "URL"       => $scrape_url,
);

The arrays consist or key value pairs and for each array I get back I loop through my email template looking for a placeholder in the format #key# -> for example #PRODUCTID#.

I then use this:

$pattern = '/\#' . $key . '\#/';
$email_body = preg_replace($pattern, $value, $email_body, $product_count);

To replace the placeholders with the corresponding placeholder.

So here is my problem: In my email template there are are several occurrences of the same placeholder (i.e #PRODUCTID#) - to be exact there is a complete set of placeholders for each array.

But I cannot get the code to replace the placeholders correctly... like:

array1 -> placeholder set1
array2 -> placeholder set2
array3 -> placeholder set3
and so on...

My system allows up to a total of 12 products = 12 arrays with product info that needs to be put in the email template. But right now it replaces the placeholder with the values from array 1 and then finished (because there are no placeholders left after the first runthrough).

The variable $product_count holds the number of product arrays (can be anything from 1-12)

I have already tried using strtr() and str_replace() without any luck.

Help, input or hints would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE - added an example of my template

<table width="285" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="1" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 5px; table-layout: fixed;">
<tbody>
    <tr>
        <td align="center" width="284" valign="middle" colspan="2">
            <a href="#URL##PRODUCTID#/?ssel=false&utm_campaign=%%jobid%%-%%xtyear%%%%xtmonthnumeric%%%%xtday%%&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=#PRODUCTID#" target="_blank">
                <img src="#IMAGE#" style="width: 200px; height: 150px; border: 0pt none; margin: 0px;" width="200" height="150" alt="#TITLE#"  />
            </a>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
    <td colspan="2" height="3" style="font-size:1px; line-height:1%;"> </td>
    </tr>
    <tr style="font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; color: #363636; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
        <td width="285" valign="top" colspan="2">
            #TITLE#
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr style="font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 100; color: #363636;">
        <td height="85" align="left" valign="top" style="height: 85px; font-size: 11px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
            <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left" valign="top" style="font-family: arial; text-align-left; font-size: 11px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
                <tr>
                    <td height="3" style="height:3px; font-size:1px; line-height:1%;"> </td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td valign="top" height="54" style="height: 54px;">
                        #ONELINER#
                    </td>
                </tr>
            </table>
    </tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table width="285" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="1" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 5px; table-layout: fixed;">
<tbody>
    <tr>
        <td align="center" width="284" valign="middle" colspan="2">
            <a href="#URL##PRODUCTID#/?ssel=false&utm_campaign=%%jobid%%-%%xtyear%%%%xtmonthnumeric%%%%xtday%%&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=#PRODUCTID#" target="_blank">
                <img src="#IMAGE#" style="width: 200px; height: 150px; border: 0pt none; margin: 0px;" width="200" height="150" alt="#TITLE#"  />
            </a>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
    <td colspan="2" height="3" style="font-size:1px; line-height:1%;"> </td>
    </tr>
    <tr style="font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; color: #363636; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
        <td width="285" valign="top" colspan="2">
            #TITLE#
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr style="font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 100; color: #363636;">
        <td height="85" align="left" valign="top" style="height: 85px; font-size: 11px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
            <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left" valign="top" style="font-family: arial; text-align-left; font-size: 11px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
                <tr>
                    <td height="3" style="height:3px; font-size:1px; line-height:1%;"> </td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td valign="top" height="54" style="height: 54px;">
                        #ONELINER#
                    </td>
                </tr>
            </table>
    </tr>
</tbody>

As you (hopefully) can see in the template code the placeholders appear more than once (for instance #ONELINER#).

I want to replace the #ONELINER# placeholder with the oneliner value for product 1 the first time I meet the placeholder. The second time it should be the value for product 2 and so on...

Hope this makes sense.

UPDATE

Here is an example of an product array that needs to be replaced into my template. As requested by dynamic.

PRODUCTID -> 50107639XX
TITLE -> Sony XPERIA Z1 Compact 
ONELINER -> Det bedste fra Sony i en kompakt, vandtæt smartphone
PRICE -> 2500
PRICE_ORG -> 5000
DISCOUNT -> 50% 
IMAGE -> //media.jflindt.dk/image/49377/500/400/sony-xperia-z1-compact-16gb-sort.jpg
URL -> http://www.jflindt.dk/product/

dynamic · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-05 13:25:01Z

1

Actually for such simple replacing you don't need preg. You can use str_replace();

$search = array(
   '#PRODUCTID#',
   '#TYPE#',
   '#CAT#'
);

$replace = array(
   'val1',
   'val2',
   'val3'
);

$text = str_replace($search, $replace, $text);

As Amal pointed out, if you have an array of pairs:

$pairs = array(
    "#PRODUCTID#" => $ID,
    "#TITLE#"     => $productname,
    "#ONELINER#"  => $oneliner
);

You can use strtr();

$text = strtr($text, $pairs);

Altho I personally prefer str_replace due to its name. If you need to build the $search and $replace arrays, having a single array of $pairs, you can do:

$search = array_keys($pairs);
$replace = array_values($pairs);

edited Nov 5, 2014 at 13:25

answered Nov 5, 2014 at 13:18

dynamic

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6 Comments

JFlindt Over a year ago

I've tried str_replace() and strtr() already and they do not not solve the problem... the closest I have gotten is with preg_replace.

dynamic Over a year ago

then you was not clear in the question. Post a snippet of your text that need to be replaced and a print_r of your values

JFlindt Over a year ago

dynamic - I have added a sample of my template and a sample of a product array

dynamic Over a year ago

jflindt, that is wrong by design. You should have a template of your item (I if understood correctly it is a full table). Then you should append each table with consecutive call to str_replace

JFlindt Over a year ago

dynamic - I see your point... I'll try populating the product tables before adding them to the email body...

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