php to HTML

jlsports

Is there away to take run a PHP file and this turn the result into an HTML file.

I have some pages that are dynamicly created using PHP and MYSQL except the information only changes once a day so I thought there might be some way to run a CRON job that just makes those dynamic files into static HTML files.

Thanks in advance

tbach2

Unless you're getting an unbelievable number of hits, I doubt that its worth the hassle.

It could be done if running php as a cgi -- just make a script that captures the output (i.e., ob_start...) and then writes it to a file; but I don't know if you can run php on the command line if installed as an apache module. I think not.

leatherback

Hi,

You could echo all the php output to one variable, and at the end of your page write it all to a file. But why would you? IF you have acces to the database and PhP, why go back to HTML pages?

ksandom

If your wanting to reduce db hits, you could setup a cron job to send all output to a variable which is then placed in either a file as mentioned before or in a table in a database. This way you will only have one db hit per page hit.

Personally, I'm hesitant to use files for a task like this these days. A well thought out database can do it much more reliably and efficiently. If you do it with files you have all sorts of issues to deal with regarding filenamming etc.

Are you using heavy resources at the moment? If not, it's probably not worth doing anything to something that already works.

Under linux you can run a phpfile under the console (this scripts and cron jobs can be made from this) by typing:

php yourfile.php>yourfile.html

This will generate your html file for you.

I would imagine that this will be the same under windows, however you will either need to set the environment var %PATH% to include the directory of the PHP binaries or specify it in you command line eg:
c:\progra~1\php\php.exe yourfile.php>yourfile.html

jlsports

My server loads are going over 1.0 with only one user accessing the site since these pages have not been released to the public yet.

I know that my data-base structure is very inefficent which is partly do to my newness to the language, and partly because I am having trouble visualizing the proper way to set this data-base up since there is a ton of information that needs to be stored and then accessed.

I am affaid that once I get live traffic that these pages will slow down my server which is why I thought maybe I could turn these PHP pages into static HTML pages.

ahundiak

Take a look at the output buffering functions. They will do want you want with out much work.
http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.outcontrol.php

tbach2

If the database is eating up resources, will that affect server load?

If so, then I would suggest examining each query that you use and make sure that your indexes are being used. Mysql will show how efficient your query is by typing 'explain' before the query. You might be surprised by what you find, and believe me, it'll make a BIG difference. Also, don't forget normalization