for my website i have some static header/footer HTML and some dynamic content generated by PHP. When it comes to render the output I just include a file with HTML inside from my PHP code. This works perfect - also when I switch between pages.
<?php
...
public function render() {
...
// file for output
include $fileName;
...
}
?>
But I also need some header.hmtl and footer.html that contains the static information (text and some divs for formating) and want to put that in front of each dynamic content, represented by $fileName.
So I simply add two includes that represent the static information.
// file for output
include "./Views/html/header.html";
include $fileName;
include "./Views/html/footer.html";
So this does what I like (formatting, etc.), but if I switch from page to page it flickers for one time. As much as I can see the page is first renderd without header/footer information and then a second time with header/footer information. Looks like this generates the flickering.
How can I avoid this ? Is this probable related to a RewriteRule of my MVC-Framework ?
Any hint is appreciated.
thanks to Lawrence who led me to the right term. It solved my problem completely.
I put a <body><script>0</script><!-- rest of the code --></body> in my code and it works now. –
Related
I am trying to roll my own MVC purely for learning purposes, but am hitting a snag when I try to load in the view files. Here's my problem:
Front controller grabs appropriate page controller, page controller include_once() the appropriate view. The view is a file containing HTML and PHP. When I return the include file from the controller, the included file content appear out of sequence of the PAGE layout intended. (example: I want to display HEADER CONTENT FOOTER, but when I include the view's contents, my controller spits out CONTENT, HEADER, 1, FOOTER).
In my front controller I am attempting to set my included file contents to a variable I then echo in between my HEAD and FOOTER in the PAGE template. But this does not work as intended. I can wrap my view file contents in: return "code" but I don't want the added headache of worrying about stray quotes/double quotes in my view code that could break the script. I have tried file_get_contents(), but this only spits out a string (albeit in the right place/sequence in my template) and does not the PHP in my view files correctly (ie at all).
My question is: Is there a way I can return my view file to my front controller using include_once() in a variable? I can't seem to find a adequate answer to this. I'd be happy to add my code if it would help.
You can assign a return value from an include(). A lesser-known feature of this function is that you can have a file like this:
<?php
// config.php
return array('database_host' => 'localhost');
and you can read it in thus:
<?php
$config = include('config.php');
However, you're wanting to do this:
<!-- text.html -->
<h1>Heading</h1>
<p>Hello</p>
and read it in with this:
$html = include('text.html);
You can try doing that, but as soon as the include() scans the file, the output will be sent to the web server. That's how PHP works. Since there is no explicit return value, moreover, the $html variable comes back empty.
Thus, we use the output buffering functions to modify PHP's behaviour: we start buffering, and then we fetch it and clear it. This is then not sent to Apache, unless of course you choose to turn off output buffering and echo what you have collected, in which case it goes back into the normal output buffer and is actually sent.
I was hoping someone could help. I have just started to dabble with PHP includes for time saving in the future. For example I want to change the footer and header on a web page once (using include) instead of copying and pasting the code 30 or 40 times - oh no... a typo start again.
Which brings me to the question(s) where is it best to place this script?
<?php include("includes/headernav.html"); ?>
Can it be placed in a div, or should it be placed at the top of your code under the body?
If I want to make an image/banner include module. Can I
<?php include("includes/image.jpg"); ?>
Or is best to wrap the image in html and apply like this?
<?php include("includes/imagewrapped.html"); ?>
Do not include .jpeg files directly, use a wrapper. Only use include with other PHP files.
As for including the header, do it any way that feels natural as long as it produces valid html. There is no particular reason to declare another div element.
Hope this helps:
<?php include("includes/ui_header.php"); ?>
My page content between header and footer
<?php include("includes/ui_footer.php"); ?>
You can probably save this as a function and call that function wherever you want to display.
It doesn't matter whether you put include in any place. However, it's better to put include in the top or bottom of your code
While including headers/footers/menus on the site, please keep in mind following things:
1) Your header/footer includes(blocks) should be wrapped inside a div.
2) This way then can be differentiated and any new change to them can be done easily.
3) Its always a good practice to include a wrapper div around an element as CSS can use it for styling.
4) Your header/footer includes (blocks) should have a flexibility that even we place them in header,footer or any sidebar, they should not disturb the UI.
1) Because you are including the HTML file, you probably need to include it where you want to display it.
2) Create a function in php where you send only image URL (maybe some other parameters) and function returns the HTML code (String) which you only echo on page where you want to display it. This way you can ensure, that all images will have the same code and styling.
for example
function generateImage($url=null) {
if (isset($url)) return '<img src='.$url.' style="width: 100px; height:100px; border: 1px;" />';
else return false;
}
The better way is to include always a php file.
I need one advice from you. I am working on a website, which uses PHP and HTML. As the biggest part of the header and footer code will be same for many pages, I am thinking of using PHP's include to avoid code duplication. But, each of those pages requires different stylesheets and JS files included. What do you think how could I let the other file know what scripts and stylesheet to import?
Our company does this:
The header reads the filename of the page calling it when it's included.
Then, it changes the extension to '.js' and outputs that if it exists. Same for CSS.
So if I have a page "register.php", it will auto-include "register.js" and "register.css" if they exist.
Here's what I do:
<?php include("includes/headContent.php"); ?>
<title>Page title goes here!</title>
<script src="script_only_used_on_this_page"></script>
<?php
require_once("includes/siteHeader.php");
?>
Site Content Goes Here!!
<?php
require_once("includes/siteFooter.php");
?>
Head Content includes any PHP I want included in every page, as well as the opening html and head tag, and any Javascript libraries and css stylesheets I want on every page. Site header closes the /head tag, and opens the body as well as printing out my site header and some other markup that goes on every page. Finally Site Footer closes out my template. Everything in between is my content area!
There are lots of different ways you can do templating, if you wanted to create a simple include and an echoHeader() and an echoFooter() function... just have the echoHeader function accept a parameter which you would pass your javascript and CSS lines to.
you can use MVC coding pattern
I want to use php to easily maintain my website, but I simply can't figure out the language - I've found some tuts online, and some other questions here, but none help me.
I've divided my site into some .php files, header/footer and such - And using
works fine..
Now I want the content of my site, to update according to which menu I click on at my site.
http://dawtano.com/pp/
If I click on "about" I want the "Hello World" to open inside my content div, but I can't get the right php code to do it.
I think you should do this---
Note: This will only work if the CSS styling are on the current directory! ()
<div>
<?php
$html_page = implode('', file('http://dawtano.com/pp/'));
echo $html;
?>
</div>
Hope this helps!
well currently your links are taking you to a separate page entirely. So why not just code it so that your include file is specific to the page. i.e, on about.php, use something like
include 'about_content.php
in your contetnt div.
If you're looking for your content to load dynamically into the content div you'll need to look into using ajax to fetch the content pages.
One popular way to construct the site is to have a single php script which displays content based upon a $_GET variable like 'page' or 'content', and then make the link as:
'http://dawtano.com/pp/index.php?page=helloworldcontent'
Using this method, you would need to check if the variable ($_GET['page']) is set using isset(), and then make sure the string is safe... as anybody with a browser could just type in some mumbo-magic script and hijack your site:
'http://dawtano.com/pp/index.php?page=somecleaverlycraftedhax'
Once it exists and is safe, add the '.php' to the file name and include that file... if it exists! If it doesn't exist, then you will need some code to handle that, probably by displaying a 'File not Found' message, or redirecting home, or something.
I prefer not to do this because it is a pain to make safe, and I feel like it is pretty ugly. What I do instead is put all the header/footer/navbar/title bar scripts into seperate 'display' functions, and put them in another file.
Then include this file with the function definitions, and call all the 'display' functions to set up the page. So every php script in your site might look like:
<?php
include 'html_display_functions.php';
/* put lines here to parse $_GET and $_POST, session_start()/$_SESSION, etc... */
print_html_pre_content();
print '<p>Hello, world!</p>';
print_html_post_content();
?>
Since every script will have this structure, you can just create a template file once. When you want to create a new page for your site, copy the template, rename the copy to the php filename you want, and add content between the two print functions.
You also keep the ability to modify the header/footer/navbar/title bar for the whole site in a central location, namely the included file with the functions.
You might be looking for some sort of Template Engine which allows you to create your pages out of variable parts. You could have a look at TBS, which is more or less what is suggested by the name. But there is a whole lot more engines out there which could do the job.
If that's already too much over the top, maybe Apache SSI (Server Side Includes) are a try for you.
A little suggestion from my side, I am often using Apaches mod_rewrite in connection with a single controller.php file. Apaches mod_rewrite will then send all request to the controller.php which will fetch the appropriate page parts for the requested page using TBS and return the respective page. So you have the controll of the page in one location only.
To your original question about.php could look like:
<?php
include('header.php');
?>
// original page content as html for about.php
// assuming header ends with the starting div <div> where you like the content to appear
// and footer starts with the closing div </div>
// if you need variable content here, simply use <?php echo $your_variable ?>
<?php
include('footer.php');
?>
The best way would be to use a switch statement:
http://php.net/manual/en/control-structures.switch.php
Something like this:
<?php
include("header.php");
$page = $_GET['page'];
switch($page)
{
case "about":
include "about.php";
break;
case "faq":
include "faq.php";
break;
case "help":
include "help.php";
break;
default:
include "home.php";
}
include("footer.php);
?>
Then just make all of your links look like this:
http://www.example.com/index.php?page=home
Just replace home with the correct page.
I'm currently using include 'header.php' and include 'footer.php' in every page, and as far as I know that's how most people do it. I thought of a way that I personally thought would be better, however. I thought of making index.php, then in the index include the page. This would both eliminate the need for a footer and eliminate the need for include twice in every page. I'm really new to php, however, so I don't know how I would do this. I tried using POST and GET methods, but it doesn't seem to work. What I want to achieve is including pages in the header using a URL such as http://mysite.com/index.php?page=history and then load history.php. If I need to clarify something, just ask. Sorry if I don't accept an answer right away, I'm really drowsy. I'll get to it when I can.
It is not a problem if you include 2 pages in a file, like header.php and footer.php...
Just writing 2 lines of code in each page is not a matter.
You can decide what pages you want to include dynamically in every page by using if statement, instead of passing the page name in the url.
If you'll do it via index.php, you will no doubt do it wrong.
Nothing bad - every newbie does it this way.
Just because you're thinking of includes, while you should be thinking of templates.
You can make it via index.php, no problem. But there should be not a single HTML tag in this index! As well as in the actual page.
No matter if you're doing it in separate pages or via index.php, the scenario should be the same:
Get all data necessary to display particular page.
Call a template.
Thus, your regular page would look like
code
code
code
include 'template.php';
while index.php would look like
get page name
sanitize page name
include page
include 'template.php';
now you can decide what to choose
First off i agree with Meager... Take a look at soem frameworks. Most will use a two step view which essentially does this althoug in a more complex and flexible way.
With that said it would look something like this:
<?php
$page = isset($_GET['page']) ? $_GET['page'] : 'home'; // default to home if no page
if(file_exists($page.'.php')) {
// buffer the output so we can redirect with header() if necessary
ob_start();
include($page.'.php');
$content = ob_get_clean();
}
else
{
// do something for error 404
}
?>
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<?php echo $content; ?>
</body>
</html>
You could get more complex than that. One thing you want to do uis make sure you dont blindly assume that the page in the $_GET var is safe... make sure the file exists on your server or otherwise sanitize it...