How to write css classes in php file? - php

Question

I am creating some dynamic template and I have an issue that I want to use PHP variables in external CSS file.
Example:
if stylesheet is styles.css and then I want to use this file as styles.php so that I can use variables in this file to make css dynamic.
What should I do for this.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Rename file to styles.php (or configure server to run PHP interpreter in CSS files).
Send appropriate Content-Type header:
header('Content-Type: text/css');
Write your code:
<?php
header('Content-Type: text/css');
$a = '#123456';
$b = '#654321';
?>
body > a {
color: <?php echo $a ?>;
}

Answer 2

Use an .htaccess file and the following line:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .css
This will make your server parse .css files as if they were .php.

Answer 3

The problem with making dynamically generated CSS files is that they won't be cached. You'll be forcing to user to hit your server at least twice: once for the php output, and once for the css.
If you're only making a few minor parts of the CSS dynamic, consider creating a regular standard CSS file with suitable defaults in it, and then having your PHP pages output a suitable <style> block which issues the overrides. That way your main CSS file can be cached, and you get dynamic styles at the cost of a few lines of extra output in your PHP file.

Answer 4

I know this is old but #MarcB is incorrect on caching
Here is a cachable version of the php CSS
<?php
ob_start ("ob_gzhandler");
header("Content-type: text/css; charset: UTF-8");
header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate");
$offset = 60 * 60 ;
$ExpStr = "Expires: " .
gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s",
time() + $offset) . " GMT";
header($ExpStr);
$blue="#00f";
$red="#f00";
$green="#0f0";
?>
#div{
color:<?=$blue?>;
background:<?=$red?>
}