PHP in HTML not working

quark122

Hi,

I'm fairly new to writing PHP (ok... VERY new)... I tried the simple

<?php
print "hello";
?>
in my .html file and it didn't print the 'hello' - when I viewed the source it still had the <?php & ?> tags, it didn't 'process' the php. Similarly, I did the <script language="php></script> option and it didn't work. But when I give a file the php extension, then it DOES work.

Please give me a quick guidance!!!

Thanks!
PHP wannabe-newbie. (I'm not even a "NEWBIE" yet).
--Will

phlavorman

correct me if I am wrong...But it's because you file extension needs to be .php not .html/.htm

quark122

But I thought you could also embed it in HTM/HTML according to various documentation.

or the php tag in the middle of the html file?

phlavorman

I honestly don't know....remember php is a server side script so testing it on you own computer it will not work..

coditoergosum

You have to give your PHP docs a .php extension... almost always.

If you have access to the server, you can actually set it up to parse all documents, or any combination of extensions you decide. A lot of people setup their servers to parse .phtml documents... some setup their server to parse .html, .htm, and .php docs. It's kind of your preference.

Unless you have access to the config files, or know the admin, you're going to have to use .php.

quark122

I'm not testing it on my computer. I'm uploading it to the web, viewing the .html file in my browser, noting the absense of the 'hello' that should have come from the php, and then doing a right click and view source. WIthin that source file the php remains.

coditoergosum

Originally posted by quark122
But I thought you could also embed it in HTM/HTML according to various documentation.

<script language="php">
</Script>

or the php tag in the middle of the html file?

Yes, you can do this. It doesn't matter if you use <? ?> or <?php ?> or <script language="php"></Script>, they're all just different versions of PHP delimiters. When you use these inside of regular HTML, you're "embedding" the code into the html, but the server still has to parse it, and return text (html) to the browser.

By the way, I always use <?php ?>, it's more standard than the other two, and <? ?> may actually get you in trouble in the future.

demonicfoetus

Well sorry yu'll have to use the .php extension on your files, this won't effect the browser of anyone who sees them, so its fine, if ur using a WYSIWYG editor for your HTML, do all ur HTML work first in the editor and then rename to .php, then back to html if u want to edit it gain, but make sure ur editor doesn't wipe ur PHP code

HDavey

Wait just a second here. I am having the same problem. Several tphp tut sites say it should work imbedded in an .html file on a local machine (your computer) if you have a server running on the machine - which I do IIS. The IIS server should parse the php code in the .html file and run it but it doesn't. Hmmmm? Where is the configuration problem?
Cheers,
Hal Davey

suntra

Originally posted by HDavey
Wait just a second here. I am having the same problem. Several tphp tut sites say it should work imbedded in an .html file on a local machine (your computer) if you have a server running on the machine - which I do IIS. The IIS server should parse the php code in the .html file and run it but it doesn't. Hmmmm? Where is the configuration problem?
Cheers,
Hal Davey

You must tell IIS to parse html documents with PHP... ! Same thing for Apache... !

HDavey

Suntra; Yes I know you have to tell IIS to use php - and I thought I had but evidently not right. What do I chack to see if IIS is configured to parse php script?
TIA,
Hal Davey

lukemedway

You better make sure that your server actually supports php as well, or the inevitable will happen.

Buggering about with htaccess is not a good idea either unless you know what you are doing.

I'd suggest you just use the .php extension.

HDavey

Quark122; Here is the answer to your problem. If your browser will run the php script when the file has a .php extension but not when the php code is embedded in an .html file - it is because the server doesn't know to run php.exe for it. I solved the problem this way; I went into the internet services manager (or whatever yours is called), went to the default web site and called up the properties page. Then I went Home Directory>configuration >Add and added Extension .html and Executable path (for me C;\php\php.ext) hit Apply, close everything up and - bang - the browser will now run php code imbeded in a .html file. Good idea to add .htm while you are at it.
Cheers
Hal Davey - PHP newbie

suntra

Originally posted by HDavey
If your browser will run the php script
[...]
the browser will now run php code imbeded in a .html file.

The broswer runs PHP ?! Are you sure to understand PHP ? It's not the browser that parses the script, but the server...

HDavey

I know the browser doesn't run the php code - the server sends it to the php engine. However what I am talking about is the browser will now send the php script via IIS to the php engine. For all practical purposes you can say the browser is running the script. The real question is why would one want to have php script imbeded in html code.
Cheers,
Hal Davey
"You don't know what it is, that you don't know"