I'm looking for advice on the best practice for separating site content up into logical blocks. I want a header and footer that are constant throughout the site, so that if I have several pages of different content, they will all look as below — changes made to the header and footer then update automatically without me having to change each individual page.
<?php
include 'header.php';
?>
<body>
<p>page content here</p>
</body>
<?
include 'footer.php';
?>
The header.php would contain the opening <html>, <head> and static content, and the footer.php would contain any extra static content and the closing </html> tag. So, my question is: Is this a good approach? I'm worried that spreading the <html> tags across multiple files is bad practice. If so, what is the right way to approach this kind of design?
Nope, your approach is wrong.
Here are main faults in your design:
You're assuming that header.php would be called on the every page call. That's wrong.
You're assuming that header.php will always be static. That's wrong.
You forgot to create a template for the page itself.
The main rule everyone have to learn by heart:
Not a single character has to be sent into browser, until all data gets ready.
Why?
it's 2011 today. AJAX era. What if your code will have to send JSONed data instead of whole HTML page?
there is a thing called HTTP header. Sometimes we have to send them. And it's gets impossible if you already have your ornate HTML header sent.
it's for just 4-page site. Okay. Imagine you've got lucky and got a request for another 4-page site. You will have to change only templates and don't touch engine files. That's really great benefit.
Imagine you're going to make a custom <title> tag for your pages, based on the page content. Isn't it extremely common thing? But you can't make it without using templates.
So, you have to have one common site template containing header and footer and also dedicated templates for the every php script.
An example layout is going to be like this:
.1. page itself.
it outputs nothing but only gather required data and calls a template:
<?php
//include our settings, connect to database etc.
include dirname($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']).'/cfg/settings.php';
//getting required data
$DATA=dbgetarr("SELECT * FROM links");
$pagetitle = "Links to friend sites";
//etc
//and then call a template:
$tpl = "links.tpl.php";
include "template.php";
?>
.2. template.php which is your main site template,
consists of your header and footer:
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>My site. <?=$pagetitle?></title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="page">
<?php include $tpl ?>
</div>
</body>
</html>
.3. and finally links.tpl.php is the actual page template:
<h2><?=$pagetitle?></h2>
<ul>
<?php foreach($DATA as $row): ?>
<li><?=$row['name']?></li>
<?php endforeach ?>
<ul>
easy, clean and maintainable.
In building off of Your Common Sense's answer, there's not a good reason to have 2 files for every page. You can easily combine your template (YCS called this .tpl.php) and your actual page into one file.
First, start off with a class that you can expand as your template needs expand:
<?php
#lib/PageTemplate.php
class PageTemplate {
public $PageTitle;
public $ContentHead;
public $ContentBody;
}
Then, make your layout:
<?php
# layout.php
require_once('lib/PageTemplate.php');
?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title><?php if(isset($TPL->PageTitle)) { echo $TPL->PageTitle; } ?></title>
<?php if(isset($TPL->ContentHead)) { include $TPL->ContentHead; } ?>
</head>
<body>
<div id="content">
<?php if(isset($TPL->ContentBody)) { include $TPL->ContentBody; } ?>
</div>
</body>
</html>
And finally, add your page with the body content:
<?php
#Hello.php
require_once('lib/PageTemplate.php');
# trick to execute 1st time, but not 2nd so you don't have an inf loop
if (!isset($TPL)) {
$TPL = new PageTemplate();
$TPL->PageTitle = "My Title";
$TPL->ContentBody = __FILE__;
include "layout.php";
exit;
}
?>
<p><?php echo "Hello!"; ?></p>
This is a basic approach but, yeah, it does work :) I sure would bother with a lot of templating and OOP but you are definitely on the right path
As i can't comment anymore, then i will answer here ;) If he need a custom title then he needs some more advanced functions. So, as i told, this is a basic approach. But in the end, if he really have a static header/footer, and really use them everywhere, well, yes, this is a good way to go.
So ofc you could bother with some advanced headers with parameters you could feed on each page. You could go on a whole MVC stuff. In the end just tell him to use a pre-made framework and stop bothering. How could he learn if you don't let him do some trial and error ?
index.php -- includes header, footer, and content based on REQUEST variable.
header.php -- header content
footer.php -- footer content
content1.php, content2.php, etc.
index.php:
<?php
include ('header.php');
// VERY IMPORTANT - do not use the GET variable directly like this
// make sure to filter it through a white-list
include(basename($_GET['page']).'.php');
include ('footer.php');
?>
if you want the URL to go www.domain.com/pagename where the page you're trying to load into index.php is "pagename", use HTACCESS and do some URL Rewriting: http://corz.org/serv/tricks/htaccess2.php
Related
I am making website and this website will have more than 20pages.
I am using my template to add a webpage. This template has header and footer, so I just add the body of new page.
But, what if I want to change navigation bar in the header, then I have to change all 20 pages that I already made to correct.
I want to know better way.
I read a book, and it says about "php include" function.
Should I use this function in the header and footer of each webpage to call header and footer file?
If I want to change the navigation bar in the header, all I can do is changing only one header file, then rest of website will be changed.
Is this correct way?
In this case, what do you do?
I am a beginner, so please advise me.
Thank you in advance.
You should build your website as following. The header.html would contain the navigation.
header.html
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
...
</head>
<body>
<nav>
...
</nav>
footer.html
<footer>
...
</footer>
</body>
</html>
page.php
<?php
require_once 'header.html';
?>
Your content goes here
<?php
require_once 'footer.html';
?>
You should use require_once so the header and footer will be imported only once per script and if the header or footer cant be found, the script will throw an exception and stop the "application".
"require_once" and "require" are language constructs and not functions. Therefore they should be written without "()" brackets!
Yes this is the correct way or you could just copy your header and footer code to every .html file (if you don't like PHP)
Yes, this is the correct way. Try to think of the DRY principle - don't repeat yourself. Elements of your web page that are common across multiple pages can be coded once, then called in. If you need to update these elements, you update them once and it affects all pages.
You then "include" these elements into your page, and the elements are self contained files. As a basic example you would have header.php
<html>
<head><!-- all of your head meta tags in here--></head>
<body>
<div id="header"><!--your header elements and top menu in here --></div>
and footer.php:
<div id="footer"><!-- your footer elements in here--></div>
</body>
</html>
Don't forget in both header and footer files you can then put dynamic code if you wish. Then for each of your pages you would simply call these files in using include, include_once, require or require_once
<?php
include('header.php');
//this is where your actual page content goes
include('footer.php');
?>
A very basic example, but hopefully that makes sense to you.
Correct.
If you include another php file it will calculate/ask for input/do output (whatever you do in the file) as part of your main file.
If you include a php file that has a function you can later call this function without it showing in your main file. (Saves space in your main file)
So your 20 pages may only need a few lines of body text and the rest is header and footer. This will make changes very easy
I'm new to PHP (3 days) and I understand the basic concept of using includes for creating high level templates. I'd like to further utilize this tool to load more granular content, but I'm not sure how to approach this. The html below is an example of a page template put together with php includes. If you reference this html, let's say I have a widget on the page contained here: <?php include('include/WIDGET.php'); ?>. In the simplest of scenarios, there would be a link above the widget that reads "Widget 2". On click of this link, I would want the WIDGET.php content to be replaced with widget2.php. How can I manipulate the include to load widget2.php?
HTML
<!-- File: index.php -->
<html>
<head>
<?php include('include/head.php');?>
<title><?php echo $siteName;?></title>
</head>
<body>
<?php include('include/header.php'); ?>
<!-- CONTENT -->
<?php include('include/WIDGET.php'); ?>
<?php include('include/main-content.php'); ?>
<!-- CONTENT END -->
<?php include('include/footer.php'); ?>
</body>
</html>
To change what file(s) is included, you would need to provide some sort of parameter to the page, that can conditionally include the correct widget.
For example, including it in URL query string, such as:
http://yoursite/index.php?content=widget2
Then, in your PHP file, you can get this value:
if (isset($_GET['content']) && !empty($_GET['content'])) {
$widget = $_GET['content'];
} else {
$widget = 'widget';
}
And include it in your HTML:
[...]
<!-- CONTENT -->
<?php include('include/' . $widget . '.php'); ?>
[...]
This is just to give you an example of the logic involved, but I wouldn't use the code as I've provided it as it is incredibly insecure, and doesn't check the existence of files, etc.
I know you're just getting started, and it's a lot to take in at once, but you might want to consider using a PHP framework such as Zend or Symfony, or CakePHP to take advantage of some routing and templating solutions that have already been set up for you.
I'm new to php coding, web development, and search optimization - so newbie overall. In the process of learning php and web development I've been trying out different website architectures and layouts. One I'm working on uses an approach like the following:
I have one index.php page which always loads a header.php, sidebar.php, and footer.php. The index.php also contains a switch so that depending on the page variable the index.php is passed it loads different core content. So for example a examplesite.com/index.php?page=photos and examplesite.com/index.php?page=stories would both have the same header, footer, and side bar but one would have photos and one would have stories as the main content.
<?php $page = $_GET['page'];?>
<?php include("header.php"); ?>
<?php include("nav.php"); ?>
<?php
switch ($page)
{
case 'play':
include("photos.php");
break;
case 'cards':
include("stories.php");
break;
default:
include("frontpage.php");
}
?>
<?php include("footer.php"); ?>
My navigation is made up of href="index.php?page=..." links so choosing a menu button on the index page essentially calls itself passing it the new core to load.
I have no idea if this is a totally unorthodox approach but it all started because I was initially going to create a wordpress theme but then halfway through decided not to do it in wordpress.
What i'm concerned about are what drawbacks could be associated with this approach when it comes to search engines, indexing, seo etc.
What are other drawbacks or issues I should be thinking about that maybe I'm not?
Thanks in Advance!
I have no idea if this is a totally unorthodox approach
There is nothing essentially "unorthodox" in using a query string to load various pages. Billions of sites using this approach. Search engines can index such pages all right.
Nevertheless,
I have one index.php page which always loads a header.php, sidebar.php, and footer.php.
This is wrong concept.
Having an index.php file only to load header and footer makes no sense and makes your site plainly unusable.
Here are main faults in your design:
You're assuming that header.php would be called with the every page call. That's wrong.
You're assuming that header.php will always be static. That's wrong.
You forgot to create a template for the page itself.
The main rule everyone have to learn by heart:
Not a single character has to be sent into browser, until all data gets ready.
Why?
it's 2012 today. AJAX era. What if your code will have to send JSONed data instead of whole HTML page?
there is a thing called HTTP header. Sometimes we have to send them. And it's gets impossible if you already have your ornate HTML header sent.
Separating display logic from the business logic will let you use the same php code on many sites. You will have to change only templates and don't touch engine files. That's really great benefit.
Imagine you're going to make a custom <title> tag for your pages, based on the page content. Isn't it extremely common thing? But you can't make it without using templates.
So, you have to have one common site template containing header and footer and also dedicated templates for the every php script.
And these templates have to be called only when all business logic is done - i.e. you have got all your data ready.
An example layout is going to be like this:
.1. page itself.
it outputs nothing but only gathers required data and then calls a template:
<?
//include our settings, connect to database etc.
include dirname($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']).'/cfg/settings.php';
//getting required data
$DATA=dbgetarr("SELECT * FROM links");
$pagetitle = "Links to friend sites";
//etc
//and then call a template:
$tpl = "links.tpl.php";
include "template.php";
?>
.2. template.php which is your main site template,
consists of your header and footer:
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>My site. <?=$pagetitle?></title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="page">
<? include $tpl ?>
</div>
</body>
</html>
.3. and finally links.tpl.php is the actual page template:
<h2><?=$pagetitle?></h2>
<ul>
<? foreach($DATA as $row): ?>
<li><?=$row['name']?></li>
<? endforeach ?>
<ul>
this way you'd need no index with includes at all
Something basic that i don't understand:
I have header.php with navigation bar for my site. Inside it, there's a <head>...</head> section.
Now, in each other page of my site, I'm using require_once 'header.php' so that each page will show the navigation bar. But, I need also specific <head>...</head> sections to the different page.
For example, in page customers.php, I'm using <script>...</script> to include the jQuery library. I don't need to include it in other pages.
Now, searching the web I see that multiple head tags is wrong syntax.
So, how can anyone:
avoid multiple "head" tags
WHILE
separating his work to different PHP files and including them ?
You have to change your page structure and employ templates.
Instead of loading header at the top of the code, you have to do it at the bottom!
And page code should output not a word, but collect all data in variables.
And only after that output can be started by calling template.
A example layout is going to be like this:
First. page itself.
it outputs nothing but only gather required data and calls a template:
<?
//include our settings, connect to database etc.
include dirname($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']).'/cfg/settings.php';
//getting required data
$DATA=dbgetarr("SELECT * FROM links");
$pagetitle = "Links to friend sites";
//etc
//and then call a template:
$tpl = "links.php";
include "template.php";
?>
Next, template.php which is your main site template, consists of your header and footer:
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>My site. <?=$pagetitle?></title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="page">
<? include $tpl ?>
</div>
</body>
</html>
And, finally, links.php is the actual page template:
<h2><?=$pagetitle?></h2>
<ul>
<? foreach($DATA as $row): ?>
<li><?=$row['name']?></li>
<? endforeach ?>
<ul>
easy, clean and maintainable.
there are many advantages in such approach:
as requested, you can populate header with actual page-relevant data.
HTTP headers can be sent as well, before any output. It includes cookies, sessions, cache-control and many more.
it's 2011 today. AJAX era. You may wish change your code to return JSONed data instead of whole HTML page. It's going to be easy using such layout.
Imagine you're going to create very similar site with just different design. You will have to change only templates and don't touch engine files. That's really great advantage of using templates.
Here are some simple ways you can look at.
You can have jQuery on the pages
that don't need it; once it's
downloaded it will be cached so it
still wont use more bandwidth.
You can move out the closing </head>
tag from header.php and close the
<head> tag in the page that's including
header.php.
You can include javascript anywhere
on a page, not only in the header.
You can also do something like this.
Before you do require_once 'header.php'; you put a variable called $jquery = true;
In your header.php file you check if $jquery is set to true, if it is, you include jQuery.
in header.php
you can type like this
<head>
<?php echo $script; ?>
</head>
then in your customers.php
you can first assign the variable
$script = '<script>...</script>'
then
require_once 'header.php'
One possible solution.
You create a global variable before including header.php.
You test this variable in header.php.
If it is true, You print script or something. Something like this:
<!-- Fragment of header.php -->
<?php if ($i_want_jquery): ?>
<script ...>
...
</script>
<?php endif; ?>
On the other hand, a template may be a better solution.
I know this is a basic PHP question, and I'm trying to learn the stuff. I very familiar with HTML, CSS and familiar with the CONCEPT of PHP, but not with specifics.
I have always partnered with a back end developer to accomplish this stuff and to set up wordpress sites, etc.
I'm building a very basic four or five page website (a showcase for the client's custom fishing rods: http://www.tuscaroratackle.com/index2.php). I want to call the page header (as in logo, navigation, etc., not as in the head element) dynamically from a php file, and same thing with the footer, so I don't have to rewrite all the markup on every page for these bits.
I don't intend to use a database for this site, I was just thinking I could call those two bits from another file, as you would in a wordpress setup with the header.php in the wp-content directory.
Is there an easy explanation on how to do this? (I get the basics, just looking for help on the more specific PHP calls that need to be made)
Or, if this is not an answer somebody could easy give, can you point me to a good resource to research it further?
Thx
You betcha - include and require -
using include
in your page:
<body>
<?php include 'header.php'; ?>
in your header.php
<div id="header">
<!-- content -->
<?php echo "run php stuff too"; ?>
</div>
would result in:
<body>
<div id="header">
<!-- content -->
run php stuff too
</div>
You should put the header html code in some file such as header.php and then include it with php like:
include ('header.php');
You should specify the correct path there, for example, if you put the header.php file in includes folder, you can include it like:
include ('inclues/header.php');
More Info:
http://php.net/include
Put in a separate file and use include, require or require_once.
Eg
require_once("path/to/myfile.php");
Look into PHP includes.
The way I normally do it is to create a file called includes.php with two functions header() and footer(), then call them on each page like such:
includes.php:
<?php
function header(){
echo '<div id="header">Welcome</div>';
}
function footer(){
echo '<div id="footer">Goodbye</div>';
}
?>
index.php:
<?php
include_once('includes.php');
header();
echo '<div id="content">Main page body</div>';
footer();
?>