[Resolved] Creating a template based site

Quicksilver_0

Currently over at SuperSatellite.com I have a pretty simple scheme and layout. I even use the very basic php require statement to put headers and footers on all my pages like this:

<?php
require ("/home/xxxxxxxx/public_html/header.htm");
?>

BUT, this still causes headaches for me for a lot of reasons, largely due to a large number of pages that existed before I began using Coranto for autogenerating pages. For those pages I can change the style and do a full rebuild and change the template on all those files at once, but for instances where I have a large number of files such as the phreak box plans that existed before my news script, I have to edit them all manually when I change something or have a problem.

So what I am wondering is this. I want to write a script that will take a file, say data.htm, and plug it into a template. Thus all my links would be something like http://www.supersatellite.com/index.php?page=data or http://www.supersatellite.com/index.php?page=news . See what I mean. The individual htm files then need no page aspects whatsoever, they are just raw html of the body text and such, and the template contains the header, footer, sidebars, and empty space with a variable to replace where the stuff plugs in. Does that make enough sense that someone might be able to help me out a little? I have tried looking at what others have done but they always seem to have way more than what I need and I can't make sense out of it to tune it down and I can't find any good tutorials on it.

Pig

<html>
<body>
<!-- blah blah blah... all the header bs-->

<?php
$include_error = "No such pages was found";
if( !isset($file) )
{
     $file = "welcome";
}
include_once($file . ".txt");
echo($include_error);
?>

<!--footer stuff goes here-->
</body>
</html>

This gives you a basic template format. Your links look like:
http://www.domain.com/index.php?file=links
Whatever file is, is the path to the file ("page" or "this/other/page").

make each of your pages end in txt (or php, or whatever - just make sure you change the .txt part in the script).

Then make sure you add this to the top of every file:
<?php
require_once("index.php");
unset($include_error);
?>
The first line requires that index.php have been called, but since it is require_once and the page has already been called, all it does is make sure that index.php is present. I.E.: it prevents your included pages getting called on their own. ( someone correct me if I remember that wrong)
The second line destroys the error. If a bad file name is given, the error is NOT unset, and consequently it is printed on the page. Make sense? The if( isset($file) ) part just determines the default page if none was specified.

jayant

Use $_GET['file'] instead of $file in the code above given by "Pig".

Quicksilver_0

Thanks for the advice. I will try to do some test stuff with this and see how it comes out.

Quicksilver_0

Wow, that works about as well as I could hope. Two more questions. I have been told of validation problems, like what if someone tries to use that variable to display data from outside my server? Also the $include_error (No such pages was found) is being displayed at the bottom no matter what, what can I do about that? What does $include_error do?

[follow up]
Okay, I think I am getting this a little. Now, currently on my main page and only my main page, I load a counter into the footer. I wouldn't worry about this, except I am concerned that if I leave it in the template then every time someone goes to a new page the counter will add one, resulting in grossly inflated numbers. So, lets say my above file is called index.php, is there a way that I could make it include the code for the counter (perhaps stored in a seperate txt file) when it is just at the base index.php, but not include it any time the page variable has a value?
[/follow up]

This is the code now as I am using it:

<?php
$include_error = "No such pages was found";
if( !isset($page) )
{
     $_GET['page'] = "welcome";
}
include_once($page . ".htm");
echo($include_error);
?>

Jeb_

Something like this, perhaps?:

if (empty($page))
{
    // $page is not set.
    // include and display counter code.
}
else
{
    // $page is set.
    // don't include counter code.
}

If you place that into your template, as long as the template is parsed by PHP you should have the flexibilty you need to determine when the counter code should be run.

Quicksilver_0

Could I just put this in the footer:

<?php
if (empty($page))
{
     include("counter.htm");
} 
?>

Jeb_

Should work. Give it a whirl and find out.

Quicksilver_0

Okay, this seems to work and make stuff look right, do you guys see anything wrong with the way this is coded? I used $page instead of $_GET['page'] as recommended earlier because it wasn't setting the variable in that case.

// header and initial page layout HTML

// Now include the page data for a given link
<?php
if( !isset($page) )
{
     $page = "news";
}
include_once($page . ".htm");
?>  

// last page layout and footer HTML

// Check to see what the page is set for and include a counter in necessary
<?php
if ($page = "news")
{
     include("counter.htm");
} 
?>

Quicksilver_0

Well, no, that counter code isn't working. It seemed like it did, but now it definately does not. I also run into a problem when a page I want to display is in a subdirectory, like /news/archive/index.htm Is there anything I can do about that?

Jeb_

The URL would have to be changed to include the subdirectory.

index.php?page=news/archive/index

But note that this is a dangerous practice, as people can then do something like:

index.php?page=../../../../somefile

However, because you've put .htm on the end, you should be relatively safe. But I still don't recommend it. Another method is to store the paths in a text file or database, and grab them at run time.

Or, you can store all of your links in an array inside the script, identified by the array key that is passed in the URL. Then you grab the file path associated with the key passed in the URL, and include it.

$page = $_GET['page'];

$valids = array(
	'news'=>'news/archive/index.htm',
	'other'=>'other.htm'
	);
if (array_key_exists($page,$valids))
{
	include($valids[$page]);
}
else
{
	die("Page not found.");
}

You can even populate this array from information stored elsewhere, if you like. This allows it to be flexible too.

Quicksilver_0

Hmmm, my simple question is taking on a mind of it's own. Okay. I figured out the sudirectory thing, that was mainly not morking only through a fault of my own and I didn't save the index.htm file, so yeah that works as expected.

Okay, lets talk about making a text file that contains my array. I think this could be done. My news script can give each article a news ID, which could translate into a way to call the file. I think I could get it to list this into a text file that contains the array. Storing it all in the script itself would be a bit cumbersome over time as more and more is added. Would the code be something to the effect of:

$page = $_GET['page']; 
include("/home/xxxxxxxx/public_html/pageindex.txt");
if (array_key_exists($page,$valids))
{
    include($valids[$page]);
}
else
{
    die("Page not found.");
}

Where pageindex.txt would contain the listing as

$valids = array(
    'news'=>'news/archive/index.htm',
    'other'=>'other.htm'
    );

I really do appreciate all the help everyone on here is giving me. You're coming through where others said it was too much work. I don't mind work when it is explained a little, because I can pick this stuff up given a little time. We all gotta start somewhere, right?

Quicksilver_0

Bump

Jeb_

Yes, that code will work fine. But don't keep that document in your public_html folder. We don't want the world viewing it now, do we? 😉

There are other methods, like serializing that array and then storing it in the text file, reading the text file, unserializing, etc etc. If you wanted to do something like that, where the array name wasn't hardcoded and it was even easier to update the file, check out serialize() and unserialize() in the Manual.

Gl hf.

Quicksilver_0

I'll take a look at that. It hadn't occured to me that since PHP is server side, I obviously don't have to store files in the public_html directory. I'm a frickin' genius. Anyway, time for more reading.

Quicksilver_0

Here is what I just tried:

<?php
if( !isset($page) )
{
     $_GET['page'] = "news";
}
$page = $_GET['page'];
require('/home/xxxxxxxx/includes/PAGEINDEX.txt');
include($values[$page]);
?>  

//=============
//THEN THE PAGEINDEX.txt FILE HAD:

$values = array(
"base" => array (
	'home' => 'index.htm',
	'news' => 'news/archives/index.htm',
	'us' => 'us.htm',
	'links' => 'links.htm',
	'dl' => 'dl.htm',
	'music' => 'music.htm',
	'bands' => 'bands.htm',
	'concert' => 'concert.htm',
	'rants' => 'rants/index.htm',
	'reviews' => 'reviews/index.htm',
	'articles' => 'articles/index.htm'
	),
"rants" => array (
	require('/home/xxxxxxxx/includes/RANTINDEX.txt')
	),
"articles => array (
	require('/home/xxxxxxxx/includes/ARTICLEINDEX.txt')
	),
"reviews" => array (
	require('/home/xxxxxxxx/includes/REVIEWINDEX.txt')
	)
);

//=============
//THEN EACH OTHER INDEX FILE WAS SIMILAR TO:

'EpVAklyAyEbHsnXTqq' => 'rants/itsgonnabeawildride.....htm',
'EpVykuyEpFfKytHqDV' => 'rants/charliethecherrylimaide.htm',
'EpVupAFllVSomXrePY' => 'rants/airplane.htm',
'EpuZuEEFlEemWnxQbu' => 'rants/letsbeanti-warpt.2.htm',
'EpuZFyuyZEdBPrIjhk' => 'rants/reality.htm',

This was giving me errors though with my second key. It would dump my array file into the template so it could be seen, along with the error. In theory this should allow me to call a file with www.mydomainname.com/view.php?page=EpVAklyAyEbHsnXTqq, and I am getting closer now I think. I am reading about arrays and maybe my problem is that I can't put a 'require' statement inside the array. Where to go from here?

The error is:
$values = array( "base" => array ( 'home' => 'index.htm', 'news' => 'news/archives/index.htm', 'us' => 'us.htm', 'links' => 'links.htm', 'dl' => 'dl.htm', 'music' => 'music.htm', 'bands' => 'bands.htm', 'concert' => 'concert.htm', 'rants' => 'rants/index.htm', 'reviews' => 'reviews/index.htm', 'articles' => 'articles/index.htm' ), "rants" => array ( require('/home/xxxxxxxx/includes/RANTINDEX.txt') ), "articles => array ( require('/home/xxxxxxxx/includes/ARTICLEINDEX.txt') ), "reviews" => array ( require('/home/xxxxxxxx/includes/REVIEWINDEX.txt') ) );
Warning: main(): Failed opening '' for inclusion (include_path='') in /home/xxxxxxxx/public_html/view.php on line 171

jayant

instead of:

"rants" => array (
require('/home/xxxxxxxx/includes/RANTINDEX.txt')
),

try giving

"rants" => $RANTINDEX ,

where you have above the following code:-

$RANTINDEX_temp = file('/home/xxxxxxxx/includes/RANTINDEX.txt')
for($i=0;$i<count($RANTINDEX_temp);$i+=2) {
$RANTINDEX[$RANTINDEX_temp[$i]] = $RANTINDEX_temp[$i+1];
}
unset($RANTINDEX_temp);

similarly do for others.

make sure the files are like:-

EpVAklyAyEbHsnXTqq
rants/itsgonnabeawildride.....htm
EpVykuyEpFfKytHqDV
rants/charliethecherrylimaide.htm
key3
value3
key4
value4
key5
value5

Quicksilver_0

I got to thinking, I am making that array more complicated than is necessary. I don't need to put in the sub arrays for the different catagories, it just isn't needed. So instead of doing:
"rants" => $RANTINDEX ,

Could I just use:

$RANTINDEX_temp = file('/home/xxxxxxxx/includes/RANTINDEX.txt')
for($i=0;$i<count($RANTINDEX_temp);$i+=2) {
$RANTINDEX[$RANTINDEX_temp[$i]] = $RANTINDEX_temp[$i+1];
}
unset($RANTINDEX_temp); 
echo $RANTINDEX ,

Quicksilver_0

Still sticking with not needing sub arrays, but that way I just mentioned in my last post didn't work. Instead I did this:

<?php
if( !isset($page) )
{
     $_GET['page'] = "news";
}

$page = $_GET['page'];

$PAGEINDEX = file('/home/xxxxxxxx/includes/PAGEINDEX.txt');
$RANTINDEX = file('/home/xxxxxxxx/includes/RANTINDEX.txt');

$values = array(
$PAGEINDEX . $RANTINDEX
);
include($values[$page]);
?>

This is close, the problem is that the array is not returning a value for the page key in include($values[$page]); . I get: Warning: main(): Failed opening '' for inclusion (include_path='') in /home/xxxxxxxx/public_html/viewtest.php on line 178" where that include is what is at line 178. The PAGEINDEX etc files are already formatted for the array as 'key' => 'value',

Quicksilver_0

Well, as it is, I know that this:
$PAGEINDEX = file('/home/xxxxxxxx/includes/PAGEINDEX.txt');
$RANTINDEX = file('/home/xxxxxxxx/includes/RANTINDEX.txt');
is not the format I should be using to build the variables for the array. The code that was recommended earlier to process the file for plugging in to the array gives me a parse error. What do I need to do to take the data from multiple files and combine it all to produce the array when the data in the files is already formatted to be in the array. Also, should the data be enclosed in single ' quotes or double " quotes in the array?

What about doing this? I see I can combine arrays with the + operator (rather than using array_merge() ). I could make the page index of each section of the site each in their own small array, then combine them all into one, right?

$bases = array ($PAGEINDEX);
$rants = array ($RANTINDEX);
$articles = array ($ARTICLEINDEX);
$values = $bases + $rants;
include($values[$page]);

Then all I have to do is assign the data from the file to it's variable, right? Is this even possible or am I over simplifying it still?