Dynamically including multiple files within php for image descriptions - php

Question

Working on implementing image descriptions to a php run gallery and can't seem to figure out how to call each text file for each individual image. I would need to place a div in the code for the image and then call the include.
//total number of images
$total = 77;
//max number of thumbnails per page
$max = 9;
//what image do we want to start from?
$startcount = $_GET["start"];
//if there is not a defined starting image, we start with the first
if(empty($startcount))
{
$startcount = 0;
}
//start off the loop at 1
$loop = 1;
//start the loop
while($loop <= $max)
{
//for the picture labels
$num = $startcount + $loop;
if($num > $total)
{
$num = $num - 1;
break;
}
// Add class="last" to every third list item
if(is_int($num / 3))
{
$last = ' class="last"';
}
else
{
$last = "";
}
//the code for the image
echo '
<li'.$last.'><img src="images/portfolio/thumbs/pic-'.$num.'-thumb.jpg" width="256" height="138" alt="Thumbnail of image '.$num.'" /><div>'.$num.'</div></li>';
I see that I can call the text files by number using '.$num.' (I have 77 individual text files with a phrase in each) but how do I tell it to call the files?

Answer 1

Assuming the description files are named something like "description_$num.txt", you can simply use readfile.
echo "<li${last}><a href='images/portfolio/pic-${num}.jpg' rel='milkbox[gall1]'>
<img src='images/portfolio/thumbs/pic-${num}-thumb.jpg' width='256'
height='138' alt='Thumbnail of image ${num}'/>
</a><div>";
readfile("description_${num}.txt");
echo '</div></li>';
Note that you don't "call" files in PHP, you either include them (which interprets them as scripts) or read them (which dumps them to the output).

Answer 2

For each file you need to do something like that:
<?php
$f=fopen($file,'r');
$data='';
while(!feof($f))
$data.=fread($f,$size);
fclose($f);
// do whatever you want with the file content.
?>

Answer 3

I made use of file_get_contents, and split the output a bit so you can more easily modify it:
<?php
$total = 77;
$max = 9;
$startcount = $_GET["start"];
$loop = 1;
if(empty($startcount)) $startcount = 0;
while($loop <= $max)
{
$num = $startcount + $loop;
if($num > $total)
{
$num--;
break;
}
$last = ($num % 3 == 0 ? ' class="last"' : '');
$output = "<li $last>";
$output .= "<a href=\"images/portfolio/pic-$num.jpg\" rel=\"milkbox[gall1]\">";
$output .= "<img src=\"images/portfolio/thumbs/pic-$num-thumb.jpg\" width=\"256\" height=\"138\" alt=\"Thumbnail of image $num\">";
$output .= "</a>";
$output .= "<div>";
$output .= file_get_contents("textfile-" . $num . ".txt"); // assuming this is where you want the phrase
$output .= "</div>";
$output .= "</li>";
echo $output;
}
?>