How do you do this ?!

[Anon]

Hi, I am new in PHP, I have programmed ASP before. Now I don't really know how to get started. Is this a good way to solve my page? I want a page that show diffrent text dependent on what the querystring ac is. If it is empty it should who the news page. Is my way a good way? Do you have some tips how to solve it better ? Is it bad to mix PHP with HTML as I do and if yes how do I don't mix them ?

<?php
$sida = @$HTTP_GET_VARS["ac"];

if($sida == false){
$sida = "nyheter";
}

switch($sida){ 

	case "nyheter": ?>
	<font><b>Sidan är uppe</b> - 22/1-2002 - DonneX<br>Blba bla bla !!! </font>
	<?php
	break; 

	case "medlemmar": 
	echo ("Nu kollar du på medlemmar"); 
	break; 

	case "info": 
	echo ("INFORMATION"); 
	break; 

	case "boka": 
	echo ("BOKA EN DATOR"); 
	break;

	case "admin": ?>
			<form method="POST" action="default.asp?ac=admin&password=done">
			<font>Lösenord:</font> 
			<input type=password name="password" size="15" maxlength="20" style="background-color: #CFCFCF; font-size: 8px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; border: 1px; border-style: solid">
			<br />
			<input type=submit VALUE="Enter" style="font-size: 10px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
			</form>
	<?php 
	break;

	case "guestbook": 
	echo ("SKRIV FFS"); 
	break;

	case "forum": 
	echo ("FORUMMMMMM"); 
	break;

	default:
	echo ("NYYYHETER");
	break;
};

?>

[Anon]

Yes...the functionality is all there, straightforward logic. It is certainly no crime to mix HTML and PHP - that's where a lot of PHP's strength comes from!

I'll make a couple of suggestions. I don't know enough about VBScript to know if you'll be familiar with the ideas, so apologies ofered in advance!

You can probably guess that this will turn into a huge file. You might want to separate each page into a file, and use include() to bring in the one you actually want to display.
For example, you might have an admin.php page. It would go:
--------------------8<------------
<?
<form method="POST" action="default.asp?ac=admin&password=done">
Lösenord:
<input type=password name="password" size="15" maxlength="20" style="background-color: #CFCFCF; font-size: 8px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; border: 1px; border-style: solid">
<br />
<input type=submit VALUE="Enter" style="font-size: 10px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
</form>

?>

and then include it in your switch() statement thus:

case('admin'):
include('admin.php');
break;

All your pages will have the same URL. Instead of using include('admin.php') you could use header('Location:admin.php') and the visitor's browser will then go to the admin.php file itself (and that will be the filename listed in the URL).