reading a PHP page into a variable

sfullman

Hi there.

Want to read a separate PHP page (with PHP tags) into a variable as an HTML file in the current PHP page, using the variables in the current page.

suppose the page I wanted to read (output.php) was this:

<body>
First Name: <?php echo $FirstName;?> <br>
Last Name: <?php echo $LastName;?>
</body>

Now I want a funciont that reads that page into a variable. I'm going to call that function real_good_idea() for this demo. Here is the way I'd want the function to work:

$FirstName = 'John';
$LastName = 'Smith';
$myPage = real_good_idea("output.php");
echo $myPage;

And of course if everything worked OK, you'd get this as the output:

<body>
First Name: John <br>
Last Name: Smith
</body>

BTW I want to do this so I can use a page as a template for an HTML Email, among other things.

Sam Fullman
Compass Point Media.

majik-sheff

eval is your ticket I think. Here's how you do it.

$FirstName = 'John';
$LastName = 'Smith';
$myPage = real_good_idea("output.php");

function real_good_idea($fileName) {
$fp = fopen($fileName, "r");
$fileContents = "</PHP>" . fread ($fp, filesize($fileName)) . "<PHP>";
fclose ($fp);
eval($fileContents);
}

majik-sheff

Hmmm, that's not gonna work.. (Variable scope issues)

Do it this way and it will work as advertised. 🙂

$FirstName = 'John';
$LastName = 'Smith';
$fp = fopen($fileName, "r");
$fileContents = "</PHP>" . fread($fp, filesize($fileName)) . "<PHP>";
fclose ($fp);
eval($fileContents);

Sorry about that.

sfullman

Curious what the </PHP> . adfkjsdfl . <PHP> syntax is all about. I've never seen that before and would like to understand. Also, I'm researching using the "heredoc" format but I'm still at the same thing, how to include an "include()" command inside the heredoc envelope.

Thanks for the previous post and I'll try it immediately.

Sam Fullman
Compass Point Media

majik-sheff

LOL, sorry about that, got my tags mixed up, it should look like this:

"?>" . fread($fp, filesize($fileName)) . "<?PHP";

The reason for this is because you are inserting html tags. PHP interprets the eval literally as an insertion into the code. Now that I look at it I realize that what you want to do can be done with a simple include:

Just lead off and end your files with the right tags like this:

?>
<body>
First Name: <?php echo $FirstName;?> <br>
Last Name: <?php echo $LastName;?>
</body>
<?PHP

and then do this:

$FirstName = 'John';
$LastName = 'Smith';
include("output.php");

sfullman

Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!

That structure,

eval('?>' . HTML/PHP mixed stuff . '<?php ');

is extremely powerful! It's basically like the PHP engine is allowing you to spawn a copy of it or something. I'll bet most people don't utilize this to its potential.

Sam Fullman
Compass Point Media

sfullman

OOPS!

Got too excited there. We still have the problem that the eval makes it print to the document instead of to the variable. So I'm back where I started, even though that's a cool thing to know.

Sam

majik-sheff

ooohhhh, you want to capture the output to a string?? Why? never mind, heres how to do it.

$FirstName = 'John';
$LastName = 'Smith';
$fp = fopen($fileName, "r");
$fileContents = "?>" . fread($fp, filesize($fileName)) . "<?PHP";
fclose ($fp);

ob_start();
eval($fileContents);
$myPage = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

sfullman

I haven't tried it but these ob_.. functions were obviously thought out by someone as smart as me. ;-)

The REASON to do that is that I want to send html emails (and other things too), where I can call a file, then read it in an evaluated condition, and use the string as the body value of the email. With the two things you showed me I should be able to do this to pretty much any level of complexity.

Thank you much for the effort!

Sam Fullman
Compass Point Media

majik-sheff

Ohhhhhh, that explains it. Glad I could help. (even if it took a few tries) 🙂

-Sheff