Dynamic Inclusion

bluefishap

I am using a blogging program called MovableType. I've read from a lot of sources that using PHP to create templates was much easier than using straight HTML. I searched and found how to create a PHP based template. I did the following:

index.php

<?php
$MainPage = "template.php"; // Main Template File 
$Content = "./page"; // Location of Content
$PageExtension = ".php"; // What comes at the end of the x... 
$default = "content.php";

require ("template.php");
?>

template.php
has HTML
this calls content.php (where my blog shows up)

 <?php
if(!$x) {
include("$default");
} else {
include("$x"); }
?>

this calls sidebar.php (where my sidebar information shows up)

<?php 
require("sidebar.php")
?>

I have read about dynamic inclusion

<a href="index.php?x=yourfilename.php>

I want to be able to use this so when I click on a link in the sidebar it will show up where my content.php shows up.

journal From this link you will see that I used the above in my sidebar except it does not show up where my content.php is.

Is there a better way, easier way, or have I just gotten it all wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

cgraz

NOTE: I disabled automatic URL parsing so you could see the ful code. Copy and paste the url's into your browser.

I clicked one of the links on your site and the url was:

http://www.ithereality.net/simplicity/content.php?x=archives/http://www.ithereality.net/simplicity/archives/2003_01.php

First of all, don't use a full path, and secondly, you would stay on index.php the whole time, no need to reference content.php

use

index.php?x=archives/2002_12.php

Your Code: http://www.ithereality.net/simplicity/content.php?x=archives/http://www.ithereality.net/simplicity/archives/2003_01.php (doesn't work)

But now try this: http://www.ithereality.net/simplicity/index.php?x=archives/2002_12.php

Or to load up January: http://www.ithereality.net/simplicity/index.php?x=archives/2003_01.php

Simple mistake. 😉

Cgraz

bluefishap

Thank you for the reply. I understand what you said but now realize I didn't but in one key piece of the problem. When you click on the link to my page click here the problem is incorporating the use of the MovableType tags. In the sidebar where it says "Archives" and "Recent Entries" those display using <$MTArchiveLink$> and <$MTArchiveEntry$>.

Using:

<MTArchiveList archive_type="Monthly">
<?php
<a href="index.php?x="<$MTArchiveLink$>"><$MTArchiveTitle$></a>
?>
</MTArchiveList>

I guess my main problem is since it does use a tag to list all the previous months...how do I get each month to display correctly? Because using it the way it is now sets every month as though it's for example December's archives.

cgraz

I'm not exactly sure how your site is set up, but you could pass a variable in the url called cur_month

If you were on january, then cur_month=01 or dec cur_month=12

Then use an if statement

if ($_GET['cur_month'] == "01") {
   // display calendar for january
elseif ($_GET['cur_month"] == "02") {
   // display calendar for february
} and so forth

But you'd want to set a default to be the current month

if (!$_GET["cur_month"]) { // if there's no value for $cur_month
   // display calendar for the month were in
} elseif ($_GET['cur_month'] == "01") {
   // display calendar for january
elseif ($_GET['cur_month"] == "02") {
   // display calendar for february
} and so forth

Cgraz

bluefishap

Thank you for that code and all your help. I really do appreciate it so much.

While viewing it it makes sense because I've had basic programming before...I have little to no php programming. How would I implement the variable pass in the url? Would I create a new php file?

The forums at MT suggested creating a template to store the months in. (Using MT you can then call the template using <$MTnameof template$> Is that basically what you are telling me to try?

cgraz

I don't know much about templates, but just place that var with in your url with the x variable.

<a href="index.php?x=/path/doc.php&cur_month=01">Janauary</a>

Cgraz

bluefishap

I'm still lost. I'm sorry for being such a newbie at this. 🙁

cgraz

You have these two links on your site

January 2003
December 2002

To create these, you have to use

<a href="index.php?x=archives/2003_01.php">January 2003</a> 
<a href="index.php?x=archives/2002_12.php">December 2002</a>

You can't make an html link without the a href tag. So just modify that to say

<a href="index.php?x=archives/2003_01.php&cur_month=01">January 2003</a> 
<a href="index.php?x=archives/2002_12.php&cur_month=12">December 2002</a>

Now you just successfully passed a variable, $cur_month in the url with the value of the current month so that you know which calendar to display.

Cgraz

bluefishap

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! That worked....

One small problem...it now lists the links twice.
click here

cgraz

Is that link generated by your template also? If not, then just look for

<a href="index.php?x=archives/2003_01.php&cur_month=01">January 2003</a> 
<a href="index.php?x=archives/2002_12.php&cur_month=12">December 2002</a> 
<a href="index.php?x=archives/2003_01.php&cur_month=01">January 2003</a> 
<a href="index.php?x=archives/2002_12.php&cur_month=12">December 2002</a>

Cgraz

bluefishap

Yes, there is a tag that generates all the monthly links. I got rid of the one causing the multiple links. Now I am back to the problem of how to call the second link December 2002 without it using January.

Am I going to have to delete the monthly archive tag and manually type in every link?

Again, thank you for all your help.

cgraz

Maybe, it's hard to tell since you're the one who set up the site. If so, it shouldn't be that big of a problem. You're not dealing with more than 20 links.

Cgraz

bluefishap

Actually I am using a program called MovableType click here

But with this program it gives you the freedom of modifying it to your liking. Which is why it's giving me problems because apparently the variables it uses doesn't play nicely with PHP... Or the probable cause being I just don't know how to get them to play nicely.

Thanks again for all your help. It's nice to find someone willing to help. For now I will just manually do it...but I do have over twenty links in my archives...just haven't imported them in yet.