IF/ELSE for header.tpl - php

Question

I am working on a site that isn't SEO friendly. Specifically, the header.tpl is inserted automatically into every page, with no option to change it based on the content of the page. I.e., whether category = Bathroom or category = Kitchen, etc.
So I need an if/else command, but having trouble figuring it out in this instance, plus the change that goes along with it.
The code on the portfolio_category.php page is as follows, and what needs to change based on vf_category is parts/header.tpl (I can create Bathroomheader.tpl, Kitchensheader.tpl, etc so that relevant tpl has the relevant Title and Description tags for the page).
<?php
$vc_root_friendly = '.';
$vc_root_site = '.';
include_once("$vc_root_site/config.php");
include_once("$vc_includes_folder/IT.php");
$template_body = new HTML_Template_IT();
$template_body->loadTemplateFile("tpl_portfolio_category.html");
include_once("$vc_includes_folder/images.php");
if(!isset($_REQUEST['vf_category'])){
header("location:portfolio.php");
die();
}
//Show header
$template_header = new HTML_Template_IT();
$template_header->loadTemplateFile("parts/header.tpl",true,false);
$template_body->setVariable('header', $template_header->get());
//Show footer
$template_footer = new HTML_Template_IT();
$template_footer->loadTemplateFile("parts/footer.tpl",true,false);
$template_body->setVariable('footer', $template_footer->get());
$template_body->setVariable("image_category", $_REQUEST['vf_category']);
//Select photos for this category
etc.
Complicating things there is another page referenced in the code above:
tpl_portfolio_category.html
And this page too has its own header.tpl include:
<? include_once 'parts/header.tpl'; ?>
{header}
<table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0">
<tr>
<td class="main"><h1><span class="firstLetter">{image_category}</span></h1>
<p>
</p>
<table height="89" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td colspan="7"> </td>
</tr>
<!-- BEGIN block_thumb -->
<tr>
<td width='180' height="120" background="./images/thumb-bg.gif"> <div
align="center">{thumb1}</div></td>
<td width="10"> </td>
<td width='180' background="./images/thumb-bg.gif"> <div align="center">{thumb2}
</div></td>
<td width="10"> </td>
<td width='180' background="./images/thumb-bg.gif"> <div align="center">{thumb3}
</div></td>
<td width="10"> </td>
<td width='180' background="./images/thumb-bg.gif"> <div align="center">{thumb4}
</div></td>
</tr>
<tr valign="bottom">
<td height="3"></td>
<td height="3"></td>
<td height="3"></td>
<td height="3"></td>
<td height="3"></td>
<td height="3"></td>
<td height="3"></td>
</tr>
<!-- END block_thumb -->
</table>
<br>
<img src="images/spacer.gif"></td>
</tr>
</table>
{footer}
Any guidance would be appreciated! I'm just trying to get parts/header.tpl to change to parts/Bathroomheader.tpl or parts/Kitchenheader.tpl based on the vf_category pulled from the database. But it's driving me nuts.
Thanks in advance,
Gary

Answer 1

there are a few ways to do this, but in order to minimize the number of files you're changing, I suggest that you:
a) Pull the variable from the database and assign it to smarty, on your first php file, for both the header and body:
//Assuming you have retrieved $vf_category from your database;
$template_header->setVariable('vf_category', $vf_category);
$template_body->setVariable('vf_category', $vf_category);
b) Edit your file header.tpl and append the following code at the top:
{if 'vf_category' == 'some_value'}
{include file="parts/Kitchenheader.tpl"};
{elseif 'vf_category' == 'other_value'}
{include file="parts/Bathroomheader.tpl"};
{else}
//the rest of the header.tpl code goes here
{/if}