I'm looking for ways to have my pages search for the page layout from an external template page. Please see the below example.
<head>
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<search for header, css, layout, etc from external page>
Page contents
<search for footer>
</body>
Is there any way to do this using PHP or HTML? I want to be able to edit the layout for all the pages without having to do it page by page. I welcome any other means to achieve the same effect as long as it works on all the browsers.
Thank you very much!
This is exactly the sort of thing that PHP is for. A PHP script can include the contents of another script using the include statement.
So each page in your application could have an associated PHP script that generates the contents, and includes footer.php for the footer layout. In this way, when you change footer.php all the pages that use it will automatically get the changes.
You can't do this with pure HTML, though you could with some javascript and Ajax.
Like Andrew said, use includes. I'll set up 2 basic examples.
The simplest, have multiple layout files that are called by your main file(s):
header.php:
<div id="header">
Menu can go here.
<?php echo 'I make all my files .php, so they can use PHP functions if needed.'; ?>
</div>
footer.php
<div id="footer">
Footer Link
</div>
index.php
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<?php include('/path/to/header.php'); ?>
Specific index.php content here.
<?php include('/path/to/footer.php'); ?>
</body>
</html>
The other option is to have one PHP file which includes all your different layout elements in functions. The reason I like this, is because you can include one file and then call specific functions for different parts. This can also be used to pass variables like a title of a page.
layout.php
<?php
function makeHeader($title) {
return 'My title is: '.$title;
}
function makeFooter() {
$html = '
<div id="footer">
Footer Link
</div>
';
return $html;
}
?>
index.php
<?php include('/path/to/include.php'); ?>
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<?php echo makeHeader('Page Title'); ?>
Specific index.php content here.
<?php echo makeFooter(); ?>
</body>
</html>
Just make sure you use relative paths (no http://www.) when including files. This will allow variables and functions to transfer over smoothly. The easiest way to do this is using the PHP variable $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] so if you have a file http://mysite.com/includes/layout.php, you could include it with include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/includes/layout.php') no matter where your file you are including from is located.
Related
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
I'm making a website with multiple pages with About info, Projects, Events etc.
My first question is, how can I include my nav bar, header and footer to be in all of the html files without copying the full code for each of them?
My second question is, how should the html structure look in the separate header/footer files so I can include them in my pages html's?
If you mention PHP as a solution, please point me to some link/tutorial for the process.
If you use php files you could do something like this:
index.php:
<?
include("header.php");
?>
//page content
<?
include("footer.php")
?>
header.php:
<head>
//head
</head>
<body>
footer.php:
<footer>
//footer
</footer>
</body>
In the header.php you could put the tags etc.
In every page you could just include these files than
You can create specific files for header and footer and require them in the pages you need them.
require 'footer.php'
require 'header.php'
First you need to make three files navbar.php, header.php and footer.php which contains their code separately.
Now in your each web pages place the below code.
include('header.php'); //Your website header code will be load from header.php
include('navbar.php'); //Your website navbar code will be load from navbar.php
include('footer.php');//Your website footer code will be load from footer.php
You can do with AngularJS. If you do not want to use server side scripting
http://www.w3schools.com/angular/
<body ng-app="">
<div ng-include="'header.htm'"></div>
Your page goes here
</body>
do not forget to add AngularJS library or you can use cdn.
so here is a question that I shouldn't be having so much trouble researching, but I am. Basically I want to create a webpage that loads in a header and a side bar. The header is it's own file header.php and the sidebar is leftBar.php. The following code is my index page, yet I am failing to have these pages loaded. I believe it has something to do with a lacking css page. But I have not found anything useful to help me solve this problem. What I would like to do is have the leftBar.php display its text on the left side of the page and the header.php file at the top. Below is the linked pages.
index.php
<html>
<head>
<title>junk</title>
</head>
<body>
junk
<?php
include ('styles/header.php');
include ('styles/leftBar.php');
?>
</body>
</html>
leftBar.php
<html>
left
</html>
header.php
<html>
header
</html>
In your include files, just place the code snippet that you want to appear on the page where it's included. You certainly don't want extra <html> elements (etc.) included at various places on the page.
I have a similar setup myself for the menu bar of a test site.
I think you have unnecessary brackets around your include file paths.
index.php:
<?php
include 'menu.php';
echo "$MENU";
?>
menu.php:
<?php
$MENU = '<table class="mainmenu"><tr><td>Home</td></tr><tr><td>Useful-Sites</td></tr></table>';
?>
You don't need to declare html tag for header.php and leftBar.php. A php file should start with <?php and end with ?>. Try learning php first http://w3schools.com/php/default.asp.
trouble researching?
first page of google:
http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_includes.asp
http://www.tizag.com/phpT/include.php
http://php.about.com/od/tutorials/ht/template_site.htm
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/php/php_file_inclusion.htm
Please look at these pages, and then update your question if you have to.
Something basic that i don't understand:
I have header.php with navigation bar for my site. Inside it, there's a <head>...</head> section.
Now, in each other page of my site, I'm using require_once 'header.php' so that each page will show the navigation bar. But, I need also specific <head>...</head> sections to the different page.
For example, in page customers.php, I'm using <script>...</script> to include the jQuery library. I don't need to include it in other pages.
Now, searching the web I see that multiple head tags is wrong syntax.
So, how can anyone:
avoid multiple "head" tags
WHILE
separating his work to different PHP files and including them ?
You have to change your page structure and employ templates.
Instead of loading header at the top of the code, you have to do it at the bottom!
And page code should output not a word, but collect all data in variables.
And only after that output can be started by calling template.
A example layout is going to be like this:
First. page itself.
it outputs nothing but only gather required data and calls a template:
<?
//include our settings, connect to database etc.
include dirname($_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();
?>