www.smarty.net/docs/en/advanced.features.objects.tpl

Smarty allows access to PHP objects through the templates.

www.smarty.net/docs/en/language.syntax.variables.tpl

Template variables start with the $dollar sign. They can contain numbers, letters and underscores, much like a PHP variable. You can reference arrays by index numerically or non-numerically. Also reference object properties and methods.