Is there a more efficient way to do this?

[laredotornado]

Hi, I'm using PHP 4.3. I have 15 pages in which I need to take the
content of the BODY and put it in a little table ...

<table>
<tr><td colspan="3"><im g src="header.gif "></td></tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="left_img.g if"></td>
<td><!-- body content goes here --></td>
<td><img src="right_img. gif"></td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="3"><im g src="bottom.gif "></td></tr>
</table>

It is a pain to have to cut and paste all this HTML code (the above is
just an abbreviated version) into all 15 pages. And plus, if the shell
changes, I'll have to change it in 15 pages. Any advice on an
efficient way to add this to everything?

Thanks, - Dave

[Chung Leong]

la***********@z ipmail.com wrote:

Hi, I'm using PHP 4.3. I have 15 pages in which I need to take the
content of the BODY and put it in a little table ...

<table>
<tr><td colspan="3"><im g src="header.gif "></td></tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="left_img.g if"></td>
<td><!-- body content goes here --></td>
<td><img src="right_img. gif"></td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="3"><im g src="bottom.gif "></td></tr>
</table>

It is a pain to have to cut and paste all this HTML code (the above is
just an abbreviated version) into all 15 pages. And plus, if the shell
changes, I'll have to change it in 15 pages. Any advice on an
efficient way to add this to everything?

Thanks, - Dave

Get the file contents with file_get_conten ts(), then pluck out the body
with a regular expression. Something like:

$s = file_get_conten ts("bobo.html") ;
preg_match("/<\s*body.*?>(.* ?)<\/\s*body.*?>/is", $s, $m);
$body = $m[1];

[Rik]

la***********@z ipmail.com wrote:

Hi, I'm using PHP 4.3. I have 15 pages in which I need to take the
content of the BODY and put it in a little table ...

<table>
<tr><td colspan="3"><im g src="header.gif "></td></tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="left_img.g if"></td>
<td><!-- body content goes here --></td>
<td><img src="right_img. gif"></td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="3"><im g src="bottom.gif "></td></tr>
</table>

It is a pain to have to cut and paste all this HTML code (the above is
just an abbreviated version) into all 15 pages. And plus, if the
shell changes, I'll have to change it in 15 pages. Any advice on an
efficient way to add this to everything?

well, first of all I really urge you to forget tables for layout and to use
css. Tables are for tabular data only.

with that out of the way:

---head.html----------
<table>
<tr><td colspan="3"><im g src="header.gif "></td></tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="left_img.g if"></td>
<td>
----------------------
---foot.html----------
</td>
<td><img src="right_img. gif"></td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="3"><im g src="bottom.gif "></td></tr>
</table>
----------------------
--page.php------------
include('head.h tml');
/* generate content */
include('foot.h tml');
----------------------

Alternatively, you could get ALL your static HTML in these two files, andf
all pages which need it are in the same dir: echo only the content in the
*.php pages, and create an .htaccess:

--.htaccess------------
php_flag auto_prepend_fi le head.html
php_flag auto_append_fil e foot.html
-----------------------
---page.php------------
echo $content;
-----------------------

Grtz,
--
Rik Wasmus

[Jerry Stuckle]

la***********@z ipmail.com wrote:

Hi, I'm using PHP 4.3. I have 15 pages in which I need to take the
content of the BODY and put it in a little table ...

<table>
<tr><td colspan="3"><im g src="header.gif "></td></tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="left_img.g if"></td>
<td><!-- body content goes here --></td>
<td><img src="right_img. gif"></td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="3"><im g src="bottom.gif "></td></tr>
</table>

It is a pain to have to cut and paste all this HTML code (the above is
just an abbreviated version) into all 15 pages. And plus, if the shell
changes, I'll have to change it in 15 pages. Any advice on an
efficient way to add this to everything?

Thanks, - Dave

Or, you don't even need php - you can do a server-side include, if your
server is set up to parse the file for SSI:

<!--#include virtual="/file/contains/mystuff.html" -->

Slightly more efficient than using PHP if you're already parsing the
file for SSI (the server will handle it without calling PHP). But
probably less efficient if you aren't already parsing it.

--
=============== ===
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
js*******@attgl obal.net
=============== ===

[laredotornado]

--.htaccess------------

php_flag auto_prepend_fi le head.html
php_flag auto_append_fil e foot.html
-----------------------
---page.php------------
echo $content;
-----------------------

Regarding this idea, will the prepend happen at the very beginning of
the page? I still want each of my 15 pages to have custom titles (e.g.
the <TITLEelement is different for each) and I wouldn't want to screw
up the HTML by prepending data before the "<HTML><HEAD><T ITLE>..."
elements.

Anyway, great ideas.

Thanks, -
Rik wrote:

la***********@z ipmail.com wrote:

Hi, I'm using PHP 4.3. I have 15 pages in which I need to take the
content of the BODY and put it in a little table ...

<table>
<tr><td colspan="3"><im g src="header.gif "></td></tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="left_img.g if"></td>
<td><!-- body content goes here --></td>
<td><img src="right_img. gif"></td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="3"><im g src="bottom.gif "></td></tr>
</table>

It is a pain to have to cut and paste all this HTML code (the above is
just an abbreviated version) into all 15 pages. And plus, if the
shell changes, I'll have to change it in 15 pages. Any advice on an
efficient way to add this to everything?

well, first of all I really urge you to forget tables for layout and to use
css. Tables are for tabular data only.

with that out of the way:

---head.html----------
<table>
<tr><td colspan="3"><im g src="header.gif "></td></tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="left_img.g if"></td>
<td>
----------------------
---foot.html----------
</td>
<td><img src="right_img. gif"></td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="3"><im g src="bottom.gif "></td></tr>
</table>
----------------------
--page.php------------
include('head.h tml');
/* generate content */
include('foot.h tml');
----------------------

Alternatively, you could get ALL your static HTML in these two files, andf
all pages which need it are in the same dir: echo only the content in the
*.php pages, and create an .htaccess:

--.htaccess------------
php_flag auto_prepend_fi le head.html
php_flag auto_append_fil e foot.html
-----------------------
---page.php------------
echo $content;
-----------------------

Grtz,
--
Rik Wasmus

[Gary Hasler]

Or, you can change all 15 pages to one php page, which includes the body
contents from one of 15 html files.
This would change a typical url from "yourdomain .com/page3.php" to
"yourdomain .com/main.php?page3" , and the php script would have a line like
<td><?php include ($root . "/" . $query . ".html"); ?></td>
For the title, just echo a variable $title which gets looked up based on
the query string.

Note this has other repercussions like affecting search engine behaviour
and caching, so it may not be the ideal solution.

"la***********@ zipmail.com" wrote:

Hi, I'm using PHP 4.3. I have 15 pages in which I need to take the
content of the BODY and put it in a little table ...

<table>
<tr><td colspan="3"><im g src="header.gif "></td></tr>
<tr>
<td><img src="left_img.g if"></td>
<td><!-- body content goes here --></td>
<td><img src="right_img. gif"></td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="3"><im g src="bottom.gif "></td></tr>
</table>

It is a pain to have to cut and paste all this HTML code (the above is
just an abbreviated version) into all 15 pages. And plus, if the shell
changes, I'll have to change it in 15 pages. Any advice on an
efficient way to add this to everything?

Thanks, - Dave

[Rik]

la***********@z ipmail.com wrote:

>--.htaccess------------
php_flag auto_prepend_fi le head.html
php_flag auto_append_fil e foot.html
-----------------------
---page.php------------
echo $content;
-----------------------

Regarding this idea, will the prepend happen at the very beginning of
the page?

Yes, before line 0 so to speak.

I still want each of my 15 pages to have custom titles
(e.g.
the <TITLEelement is different for each) and I wouldn't want to
screw
up the HTML by prepending data before the "<HTML><HEAD><T ITLE>..."
elements.

Either check & set the title in the head.php (instead of a static *.html),
or go with Gary Hasler's option (which is the one I normally use). The
drawbacks he mentions can easily be solved.

I usually use some RewriteRule's in .htaccess to make it seems they're
different static pages.

Grtz,
--
Rik Wasmus

[Gary Hasler]

Rik wrote:

I usually use some RewriteRule's in .htaccess to make it seems they're
different static pages.

That's the ultimate solution--then the clients never even need know there's
any php involved. I'd love to have most of our site done like that but
unfortunately rewrite's not available on our current hosted server.

[Chung Leong]

Rik wrote:

--page.php------------
include('head.h tml');
/* generate content */
include('foot.h tml');
----------------------

Agh! Drives me crazy that people keep recommending this hamfisted
method. Doing includes in lieu of calling function is a poor way to
program. A page header or footer is not different from other
functionalities in your application. To reuse it, wrap it in a
function. Example:

--interface.php---

<?php function printHeader() { ?>
<html><head>. ..
<?php } ?>

<?php function printFooter() { ?>
....</body></html>
<?php } ?>
-----------------------

Note the immediate advantage here of having the HTML within the same
file. It's also obvious how you would implement any parameterized
behavior--by passing parameters. To handle different page title, for
example:

<?php function printHeader($ti tle = "Home Page") { ?>
<html><head>
<title><?php echo htmlspecialchar s($title); ?></title>
<?php } ?>

The individual pages then pass their own titles when they need to
override the default.

[Rik]

Chung Leong wrote:

Rik wrote:

>--page.php------------
include('head. html');
/* generate content */
include('foot. html');
----------------------

Agh! Drives me crazy that people keep recommending this hamfisted
method. Doing includes in lieu of calling function is a poor way to
program. A page header or footer is not different from other
functionalities in your application. To reuse it,

Pardon, 'reuse'? How many heads/closing html tags do you want in a page? I
normally opt for just one, but hey, that's silly me.

wrap it in a
function. Example:

--interface.php---

<?php function printHeader() { ?>
<html><head>. ..
<?php } ?>

<?php function printFooter() { ?>
...</body></html>
<?php } ?>
-----------------------

Note the immediate advantage here of having the HTML within the same
file. It's also obvious how you would implement any parameterized
behavior--by passing parameters. To handle different page title, for
example:

<?php function printHeader($ti tle = "Home Page") { ?>
<html><head>
<title><?php echo htmlspecialchar s($title); ?></title>
<?php } ?>

The individual pages then pass their own titles when they need to
override the default.

Well, that's indeed a pro to the include.
However, a con is this: If I want to change something in the head once the
project is running, I usually don't want to fiddle around in files anymore,
I want to be able to change it in an interface. While a *.php page can just
be opened and displayed in an textarea, I'm definitely more at ease working
on the plain HTML bits.

Then again, my bigger projects all have a dynamically built head section,
little to no actual static HTML content there.

Grtz,
--
Rik Wasmus