using if statement with echo and include

Anon

I could really use some help with the following php in a recieve page generated from submitting a form:

if ($email == "" || $nominatoremail =="")
{
echo "

<HEAD>
<TITLE>GHC | Award for Best Practices in Global Health</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<body>

<?
include(\"/var/web/htdocs/assets/html/banner_config.php3\");
?>

blah, blah...

I've only attached the piece of the php text with which I'm having trouble (I hope it's enough information to understand the problem). Everything seems to work ok except the file in the include() isn't working - it doesn't crash the page but it doesn't appear at the top of the page either.

Am I trying to include too much information? I appreciate your help - I'm just learning this stuff. Thank you, Shawna

maxpup979

A couple of potential problems...
You may have cut out this code, but there is no end-quote for your echo. Also, why are you escaping the quotes in your include statement?

Anon

include("/var/web/htdocs/assets/html/banner_config.php3");

terje-s

I'm not sure whether or not the others gave you an answer, but it didn't look like you got what you sought.

However, you are doing one thing wrong. You cannot echo or print php-code. I'm sure that this is possible somehow, but i never needed it, and I don't really think you do either.

That is, you cannot echo "<?php print $test; ?>";. This will output this text to the client browser, not being parsed server-side. This will result in the text <?php include(..);?> being sent to the browser. Ofcourse, this will not include any files. The solution for your problem, is to break your echo up, and do the include outside it.

if ($criteria) {
echo "<head><title>blah</title></head><body>";
include("somefile");
echo "</body>";
}

Anon

Terje, you rock! Your suggestion worked perfectly - I'll finally get a good night's sleep tonight! Also, thank you for the explanation of why it wasn't working - it's nice to get a fix but its even better when you know WHY the code didn't work.

Thank you to everyone who responded to my plea for help.

Shawna

maxpup979

just as an addendum--Terje is absolutely right, but you CAN echo PHP code, and have it run at a later time. I use this a lot in content management apps. Just in case you ever run into it...

Anon

This is good to know for the future- can you give an example?

Thank you, Shawna

maxpup979

You betcha. probably the easiest example would be from a JS folding tree that we use. It uses a flat file to build the tree structure. However, we wanted to have users be able to use a blind login for another web application, so that they wouldnt have to type in the identical info. So I have a PHP page that generates the Javascript that controls the folding tree, and WITHIN that javascript page, I have also generated php. Confusing, I know. But thats one of the ways that I have used it. And let me tell you, figuring out just what to escape is a big ol pain in the hiney. the following example is from the PHP which generates the JS:

$line.="<?\n";
$line.="\$execs=file(\"/whatever\");\n";
$line.= "if (strstr(\$execs[0],\$PHP_AUTH_USER)){\n";
$line.= "print \"";
$line.="insDoc(fT, gLnk(\\"Executive Reports\\",\\"exec_apps/index.html\\"))\n\";\n";
$line.="}\n";
$line.="if((\$PHP_AUTH_USER == \"user1\")||(\$PHP_AUTH_USER == \"user2\")||(\$PHP_AUTH_USER == \"user4\")||(\$PHP_AUTH_USER == \"user3\")||(\$PHP_AUTH_USER == \"user5\")){\n";
$line.= " print \"";
$line.= "insDoc(fT, gLnk(\\"Folding Tree Admin\\", \\"/yaddal/driver.html\\")).setTarget(1)\n\";\n";
$line.="}\n";
$line.="?>\n";

$line.="\n";
$res=fwrite($fp,$line);

Pardon the wrapping, but Im sure you get the idea. Hope this helps!
Darren