Newb looking to understand templating?

confusedx

Hi. Up to now, I have only used MSFP and html and found it a chore when my menu's needed to change or I wanted to change the layout of my pages (ie left colum width or add a new footer).

I read a tutorial on how to include headers and footers. So now I am developing a site in php for the learning experience. I have multiple questions and unfortunately don't know anyone to personally ask so please give some help where you can.

Are there any good links to tutorials for Template development?
Is it possible to include into a php file 4 different html files?

a. Header.html,
b. Menu.html,
c. Content.html
d. footer.html?
If the answer to 2 is YES, can I have just one php file called index.php and somehow make the content.html file change based on what was selected in the menu.html file? Sorta like Frames. Nothing changes but the content (just saves me having so many different files to manage)

Thanks and if you have recommeded reading for a beginner, I would love getting a PM with the links.

Thanks again!!

Confused.

Shrike

To answer no.2, yes you can, all you need is each chunk of the page in separate files, and the include() function used at the relevant points. Generally you'd have one HTML or PHP file which includes the other files at the correct place. Then when updating the site all you need to do is update the one file. Here's a (very) basic example using embedded PHP (not my preference but easier to show here)

<html>
<head>
<title>My site</title>
</head>
<body>
<table border="0">
<tr><td colspan="2"><?php include("header.html"); ?></td></tr>
<tr>
  <td><?php include("nav.html"); ?></td>
  <td><?php include("body.html"); ?></td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="2"><?php include("footer.php"); ?></td></tr>
</table>
</body></html>

confusedx

Thank you Shrike.

So I can use my old html file as the layout since it has the tables and colours and all that formatted, have it called from the index.php file and from a space within the html file call the menu.php file.

How deep can one go calling a file from within a file?