[Resolved] Including pages based on filename?

kilbey1

Hi there folks,

I've always set up PHP pages by wrapping the header and the footer around the page in question.

I was wondering if it's possible to setup the index page, then fetch the content based on the filename they want to access. Example:

index.php shows default content.
User clicks on careers.php, and from within header.php, the requested file name is included.

What function would I use for this? fopen()?

Or this really just a bad way to start coding something? 🙂

Thanks,
Eve

LordShryku

No, this is actually pretty common. I have my home.php page handle most of the requests, then just do a require_once on the file I need. So assume in this example, home.php is the controlling page(your header page).
I usually set a variable in my links like this:
home.php?view=stats
home.php?view=records
home.php?view=blah

Now, you could just use that variable to call the page...

// On home.php
if(isset($_GET['view'])) {
   if(is_file($_GET['view'].".php")) {
      require_once($_GET['view'].".php");
   }
}

But I really don't like this method. I really don't want people to know what actual page they're on. And it may take some extra coding, but gives you ultimate control if you custom code it

if(isset($_GET['view'])) {
   switch($_GET['view']) {
      case "stats":
          require_once("folder/stats/page.php");
      break;
      case "records":
          require_once("otherfolder/records.php");
      break;
      case "blah":
          require_once("page.php");
      break;
      default:
         /* They're not following the rules, so error out */
         require_once("error.php");
      break;
   }
}
else {
   require_once("default.php");
}

HTH

kilbey1

Thanks! That seems to work. I'll bug you if I have any more questions. 🙂

kilbey1

I may be doing something incorrect on this. I have this split up as so:
header.php - holds the style sheet, etc. as well as a repeat header
footer.php - where I have links to About Us, Careers and Contact Us
content.php - where 'content' is the layout where content will be called in

Now, on the content page, I have copied your code like so:

<?php
/*if(isset($_GET['view'])) { 
   if(is_file($_GET['view'].".php")) { 
      require_once($_GET['view'].".php"); 
   } 
} 
*/
if(isset($_GET['view'])) { 
   switch($_GET['view']) { 
      case "aboutus": 
          require_once("aboutus.php"); 
      break; 
      case "careers": 
          require_once("careers.php"); 
      break; 
      case "contactus": 
          require_once("contactus.php"); 
      break; 
      default: 
         // They're not following the rules, so error out
         require_once("error.php"); 
      break; 
   } 
} 
else { 
   require_once("default.php"); 
}  

?>

Here's the page in action:
WOW ERP

Click on the 'About Us' located in the footer. This is my 'default.php' page that is being included here. It doesn't appear to be pulling any of the header/footer content here.

The other issue is, how does this affect bookmarking, search engines and friendly URLs? I don't mind the user knowing what page they are on; in fact, I prefer it. I'd like to have a setup more so that when the user clicks on the 'About Us' link, then aboutus.php will be shown as the extension, and About Us page will be 'inserted' into content.php.

Which you may have been illustrating in your first code example, but I wasn't sure how to get this to function properly.

batman

Click on the 'About Us' located in the footer. This is my 'default.php' page that is being included here. It doesn't appear to be pulling any of the header/footer content here.

That is because in the code above you are not including them.

If you dont mind them knowing the page there on, then try it like this:

<? 

include("header.php");

if (!$_GET['id'] || $_GET['id'] == "") 
{  

  include("content.php");  //nothing is set so include your main page.
}   

else 
{ 
  if (file_exists("".$_GET['id']."php"))  

{  

    include("".$_GET['id'].".php");  

  }  


  else {  

    include("404.php");  

  } } 

include("footer.php");

?>

Then link to it like this:

<a href="content.php?id=aboutus">About Us</a>

kilbey1

Well, I've tried to change a few things on the live site, but I don't think I'm comprehending the changes that need to occur.

First off, won't this still show content.php?id=whatever following the URL? I was looking to have it show as http://url/whatever.php.

Second, using the information posted by Batman, I ended up getting double footers and headers. So it appears there may be something incorrectly set up in my pages.

In addition to having a header.php and footer.php, there is of course content.php which looks like the following:

<table width="725" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"  bsorder="0">
  <tr>
    <td width="1" valign="top" background="images/pixel_black.jpg" bgcolor="#000000"><br>
      <img src="images/pixel_black.jpg" width="1" height="1"> </td>
    <td width="160" valign="top"><br>
	<?php 
	//include left column content here
	include "left_column_content.php"; ?>
    </td>
    <td width="1" background="images/pixel_black.jpg" bgcolor="#999999"><img src="images/pixel_black.jpg"></td>
    <td width="563" align="center" valign="top">      

	<table width="563"  border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" id="table_content">
          <tr>
            <td>              

            <!-- CONTENT GOES HERE -->
<?  

if (!$_GET['id'] || $_GET['id'] == "")  

{   

  include("default.php");  //nothing is set so include your main page. 
}    

else  

{  

  if (file_exists("".$_GET['id']."php"))   

{   

    include("".$_GET['id'].".php");   

  }   


  else {   

    include("404.php");   

  } 
}  

?> 


<br>              

        </td>
          </tr>
    </table></td><td width="1" background="images/pixel_black.jpg" bgcolor="#000000"><img src="images/pixel_black.jpg"></td>
  </tr>
</table>

And then, there is index.php which pulls it all together.

What I normally do is make a header, and a footer, split this up and just include the header and footer on the indicated page, ie. aboutus.php.

This has a tendency to wreak havoc with the HTML, because the editor views it as invalid tables, ie. no ending td or tr tags at the end of header.php.

I can still do it this way, I just figured there was a more elegant way for managing pages, calling one 1 page the required content, and having the file name result in, say, aboutus.php.

AstroTeg

I've done the include file approach before. Its ok. If you're comfy with it it'll work, but I found it a bit limiting. Having the same URL was just one of the issues...

I toss this idea out. Run with it if you like it.

Take your idea of including all these pages and reverse it. Literally. So, instead of having an include for each file you have on your site, have a file that includes your header and footer. These could be files, but I find that gets a little messy. I created 1 file called display.php. In it I put in 2 functions. One to handle displaying the header of the site and the 2nd to handle displaying the footer. You include "display.php" whereever you wish, but by itself, it doesn't display anything. Then in your code, when you're ready to display the header, you might do "head();" and for the footer, maybe "foot();". If you're fancy, you can pass along some of the meta data to the head function such as keywords, page title, description, etc.

So, it might look something like this:

<?
include('include/display.php');

head('My Page Title');

// page content goes here
/* you could include another file here, but I recommend actually tossing a function here to handle your main page content or just directly including the HTML
*/

foot();
?>

kilbey1

Great! Works brilliantly...
http://www.wow-erp.com/index1.php

Say, how can you set it up so that you can put out content in the head() function? IE. 'title' especially is my main concern.

I want to do a breadcrumbs trail eventually...will this negatively affect things?

Thanks,
Eve

AstroTeg

Originally posted by kilbey1

...
Say, how can you set it up so that you can put out content in the head() function? IE. 'title' especially is my main concern.

I want to do a breadcrumbs trail eventually...will this negatively affect things?
...

"put out content" - I'll need clarification. Are you referring to printing out content? Or you referring to specifying content?

kilbey1

Well, in your code you have put:
head('My Page Title');

I have put my html into a function 'head' and called head(); where required, but I'd like to set it up so that I can call
head('My Page Title');

...instead of my usual
<? echo $pagetitle; ?> in display.php,
and setting a variable $pagetitle on every page.

AstroTeg

Ah...

Here's what my head() function looks like:

<?
function head($szTitle='Default Title')
{
?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>

<TITLE><?=$szTitle?></TITLE>
</HEAD>

<BODY marginwidth=0 marginheight=0 topmargin=0 leftmargin=0>
<?
}  // end function head(...
?>

I stripped down my head function for clarity (otherwise you'd see the JavaScript mess, links to CSS, etc). Another nifty feature to point out here is because you're using a function, you can specify a default title if you want. This means you can just do head() without thinking and it will always give you a title (better than nothing at all). Use this trick on your metatags and setting up all your other pages should become a lot easier.

kilbey1

Thank you very much! Works great...