[Resolved] confused by template system

mistafeesh

I am using a message board script which has a template system that I don't really understand. In order to make the board fit in with the rest of the site, I need to include a mini-calendar, which is in its own self contained file.

the templates use the following format to include files

%%include,"filename"%%

but when I emulated that method to include my minical, it just sort of vomited the php code in the file all over the screen. I tried it with and without the proper php tags in the include, and I also tried using a normal php include command in the template. All either resulted in nothing being displayed, or the code being thrown up on screen.

any ideas?

Shrike

You haven't told us what the templating system is, what the code looks like, what the errors are etc. Explain some more and I'm sure we can help 🙂

mistafeesh

dang. blooming web browser crashed just as I was replying...now where was I. Oh yes.

Sorry not to mention the script name. It's a little known beast, which goes by the name THCnet. It's found at http://devel.thcnet.net/thcnet/

When I include my file, I don't get any errors reported as such, but the php code from the file is treated as HTML, and displayed all over the resulting page.

I have no idea whether the author used a template system of his own devising or someone elses. Here's the template for the main page(modified by me a bit):

%%include,"thcnetheader.template.php"%%

<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=100% height=100% vspace=0>
  <tr>
    <td valign=top width=200 background="../../images/nav/navbg.jpg">
      <!-- start left column -->

  %%include,"thcnetmenu.template.php"%%

  <!-- end left column -->
</td>
<td valign=top width=5>
  <!-- center spacer -->
  <img src="pics/halojones/spacer.gif" height=1 width=5>
</td>
<td valign=top>
<table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
  <tr>
    <td class="nav"><font size="5">ACT 4 Business messageboard</font></td>
  </tr>
</table>
      <!-- start right column --><br><br><br>

  %%info%%
  %%navigation%%

  %%content%%

  %%navigation%%
  <!-- end right column -->
</td><td valign=top width=8> </td>
  </tr>
</table>

%%include,"thcnetfooter.template"%%

there's also a file called "displaypagetemplate.php" that seems to have something to do with all this. I don't really understand it at all yet...it's code is

<?
function displaypagetemplate($funct)
{
  global $mysql_link, $session, $baseurl, $altpagetemplate, $pagetemplate, $subpagetemplate;
  global $session_LastLocatn, $err;
  global $user_ID, $user_Name, $user_password, $user_email, $user_admin;
  global $sysoplevel, $adminlevel, $moderatorlevel, $moderatedlevel;
  global $err, $DOCUMENT_ROOT, $nav, $pagetime;
  $err = 0;

  // determine which template we should display
  if($altpagetemplate)
  {
    $filename = $DOCUMENT_ROOT . "/" . $altpagetemplate;
  }
  elseif($funct == "msgform"
    or substr($funct,0,8) == "article,"
    or substr($funct,0,5) == "edit,"
    or substr($funct,0,6) == "reply,"
    or substr($funct,0,8) == "preview,"
    or substr($funct,0,9) == "moderate,"
    or substr($funct,0,5) == "login"
    or substr($funct,0,5) == "apply")
  {
    $filename = $subpagetemplate;
  }
  else
  {
    $filename = $pagetemplate;
  }
  // open template file
  $outbuffer = "";
  if($fileopen = fopen($filename, "r"))
  {
    while(!feof($fileopen))
    {
      $outbuffer .= macro(fgets($fileopen, 255),$funct);
    }
    fclose($fileopen);
  }
  $outbuffer = str_replace("%%nav%%", $nav, $outbuffer);
  print($outbuffer);  

  // finish updateing session info with time and location
  $Query = "UPDATE session "
   . "SET LastAction = now(), "
   . "    LastLocatn = \"$session_LastLocatn\" "
   . "WHERE ID='$session' ";
  mysql_query($Query, $mysql_link);

  $Query = "UPDATE users "
   . "SET lastread = now() "
   . "WHERE Name='$user_Name' ";
  mysql_query($Query, $mysql_link);

  // page display is finished
  list($usec, $sec) = explode(" ",microtime()); 
  $pagefin = ((float)$usec + (float)$sec); 
  print ("<!-- $pagetime:$pagefin:" . ($pagefin - $pagetime) . " -->");

  exit;
}
?>

mistafeesh

actually, even better would be to include the whole script within my own files. But if I try to do this, I get

Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/dan/public_html/act/mboard/index.php:7) in /home/dan/public_html/act/mboard/thcnet.php on line 218

several times (for several different page numbers)

Shrike

If PHP code is getting displayed in a browser, there's a good chance it's because your webserver is not configured properly. What happens when you run a simply PHP script, i,e, <?php echo "hello"; ?> ?

mistafeesh

most php scripts work fine, so I don't think it's that. I've got all sorts of complicated stuff (oscommerce, my own code, phpmyadmin, etc) working fine.

I'm currently working on moving the information that needs to go in the header to another file so I can include the messageboard script in my pages rather than the other way round. That'll make it easier with Dreamweavers template system too, which I use in this site a bit.

Avochelm

Judging by the error message, you are sending header information after the headers were sent.

Eg:

<?

header("foo"); // This will work fine

echo(); // This prints out some HTML and now headers can no longer be sent

header("foo") // This will give you an error

?>

You will see here "output started at ......" is telling you where the output begins.

Headers must be sent before ANY output!

mistafeesh

Hi. Thanks for your reply.

The problem was shoehorning the prewritten php pages into my site design. Trying to understand the bits of code that sent headers and the bits that didn't was a nightmare. I eventually gave up on the whole thing and wrote my own pages, so I shall mark this thread resolved!