PHP Templates and/or Web Frameworks

[Ted Roche]

Working on my third major PHP application, and it's time to stop re- 
inventing the wheel. I'd welcome some recommendations on tools,  
templates and/or frameworks.

I've got a couple of simple PHP apps in production. Lotsa data,  
simple layout. These were ugly but workable apps, where the client  
was delighted with tables in black, border 1 with white backgrounds.  
Just the facts, ma'am. That much artistic talent I have.

The next client is interested in a public-facing application, with  
lots of data and dynamically generated pages. Ideally, I'd like a  
templating engine or web framework where the business logic can be  
encapsulated separately from the interface, and the interface  
portions could be edited by a graphic designer with his or her choice  
of tools (Dreamweaver, GoLive, Mozilla, etc.).

I've played around with PEAR's HTML_Template_ITX and they look okay.  
A peek at SourceForge tells me that everyone has written a framework,  
version Zero-Point-Four, "fast approaching version one" as one page  
put it. No surprise there.

I'd welcome recommendations from those who have actually shipped an  
app based on a PHP framework or templating package they'd recommend  
(or warn me off!). Basic specs: XHTML 1.0, CSS, data entry/CRUD  
application with MySQL 4.1x as backend, managed hosted RHEL4  
dedicated server environment.

Ted Roche
Ted Roche & Associates, LLC
http://www.tedroche.com