Quick and dirty PHP function to render templates

render_template.php

<?php

function render($template, $params = array(), $directory = 'templates') {
  // make sure that the template has the desired params
  extract($params);

  // catch the template content
  ob_start();
  include($directory . '/' . $template . '.php'); // you have the correct include_path, right?
  $applied_template = ob_get_contents();
  ob_end_clean();

  return $applied_template;
} // END function render