What are .tpl files? PHP, web design

Question

Someone wants me to redesign a site run in PHP (VideoCMS). But when I asked him to send me the source he has given me *.tpl files instead of *.php. There is some code inside them:

{include file='header.tpl' p="article"}  <br /> <table width="886" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">   <tr>     <td width="150" valign="top">     <div id="reg_box">     <h3 class="captions">{$lang.articles}</h3>         <div id="list_cats">         <ul>             {$article_categories}         </ul>         </div>     </div>     <br />     <div id="reg_box">     <h3 class="captions">{$lang.members}</h3>     {if $logged_in == '1'}     {include file='loggedin_body.tpl'}     {else}     {include file='login_body.tpl'}     {/if} 

or

{include file='header.tpl' p="index"}  {php} $_SESSION['isFair'] = "Yes"; {/php} 

What's the interpreter of the code? How can I redesign this site?

Answer 1

That looks like Smarty to me. Smarty is a template parser written in PHP.

You can read up on how to use Smarty in the documentation.

If you can't get access to the CMS's source: To view the templates in your browser, just look at what variables Smarty is using and create a PHP file that populates the used variables with dummy data.

If I remember correctly, once Smarty is set up, you can use:

$smarty->assign('nameofvar', 'some data'); 

to set the variables.

Answer 2

Templates. I think that is Smarty syntax.