How to write PHP with CSS Syntax

I've recently designed a template system, and wanted to make it as easy as possible for the designers to enter values into PHP functions. So I wrote a little function to allow a CSS style string to be converted into an array.

Regular PHP Method

//The line of code the designer has to edit
echo createPosition('header', '100px', '200px');

function createPosition($name, $height, $width)
{
  return  '

. $name . '" style="height:' . $height . ';width:' . $width . ';">' . $name . '
'; }

CSS Style PHP

//The line of code the designer has to edit
echo createPosition('name:header; width:100px; height:200px');

function attrStringToArray($attr_string)
{
  $attr = array();
  foreach(explode(';', $attr_string) AS $attr_temp) {
    if (strlen(trim($attr_temp)) > 0) {
      list($name, $value) = explode(':', $attr_temp);
      $attr[trim($name)] = trim($value);
    }
  }
  return $attr;
}

function createPosition($attr_string)
{
  $attributes = attrStringToArray($attr_string);
  return  '

. $attributes['name'] . '" style="height:' . $attributes['height'] . ';width:' . $attributes['width'] . ';">' . $attributes['name'] .'
'; }

So you can see that the line of code the designer has to edit is a lot easier to understand with the CSS style PHP. The attributes can also be in any order. This is just one scenario and can be used in many.