SSI incuded first, then PHP interpreted? Or vice versa?

lrgiblet

Hi. I apologize for asking such a thorny question on my very first post to this forum. If anyone can help me, though, I would be very grateful. I hope my description makes sense.

On my pages I load a set of navigation tabs with an include file. Which tab is "on" depends on how a variable is set right before the "include" call.

So the code in the main document is something like this:

$TabOn = 1; // where, say, 0 =Home; 1= Articles; 2 = ...
include("tabbar.inc");

Inside the tabbar.inc file, I have code like this for each tab:

[i]	<td><a href="http://www.mysite.com/"><img src="images/nav/articles_<?php if($TabOn==1){echo "on";} else {echo"off";} ?>.gif" height="29" width="108" border="0"></a></td>

[/i]
This used to have the effect that if the tab (in this case the "articles" tab) was supposed to be "on", it would load one tab image. Otherwise it would load another tab image.

What must have allowed this to work was that the include file was dumped into the main file BEFORE the PHP was interpreted. This allowed the variable assigned in the main document to have a value when the code in the include file was interpreted.

NOW, however, it seems that the PHP in the include file is interpreted first, and then the file is included in the document, so that the variable always has a value of zero (Home), regardless of what value it is assigned in the main document.

QUESTION: Is this something that changed with the latest version of PHP? And is there an easy way to fix the problem without having to change the code on every page? I.e., is there a .htaccess command that would help or something?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Larry

coditoergosum

First off, are you really talking about SSI, or are you talking about the include() php function? They are different. I'm going to assume you're talking about the include() function, since it'd be silly to try to use SSI and php at the same time.

That being said, I believe all of your assumptions are correct, and I think something else is going on.

Straight from the php.net documention for the include() function:
"When a file is included, the code it contains inherits the variable scope of the line on which the include occurs. Any variables available at that line in the calling file will be available within the called file, from that point forward. "

You're going to need to do some debugging. I'd echo the value of $TabOn right before the include, then at the beginning of the included file, and then right after the include to see if the value is getting botched somewhere.

By the way, in the future use the php button for code... makes it easier to read.

lrgiblet

Hey, thanks for the reply.

I did the debugging, and the assigned value for the variable was not accessible within the include file, but was both before and after.

I tried something else. It seems that I've been including files using an http address. (e.g.,

include("http://www.mysite.com/includes/tabfile.inc");

)

When I switched a call to a relative address (e.g.,

include("includes/tabfile.inc");

), the variable was accessible.

This solves the problem, but I really don't want to go through all of my pages and make the change.

Here are a couple more questions:
1. Is this effect being produced by the Zend optimizer, perhaps?

If so, do you think there is a command I could enter in a common file like .htaccess or something that would solve the problem for all pages? I'm not really up on this stuff, but it would be great if there were a global parameter-flipping solution that would save me from making the change to every page.

Thanks again, and thanks for the tip about the php tags.

Larry

coditoergosum

Well, when you specify the http protocol you are telling your script to make a http request to your web server for the file, and not a request to the file system for the file. What this means is, the file is coming from your web server, and if your server is set to parse .inc files for php (which it doesn't by default, but you or your host may have set it up to do so) you're going to get the output of the script included, and not the actual code. What do you get when you open the file in your browser? Whatever you see in your browser is exactly what's getting included into your script.

Again, directly from the php.net documentation for the include() function (which is here, I suggest you read it all: http://php.net/manual/en/function.include.php):
If "URL fopen wrappers" are enabled in PHP (which they are in the default configuration), you can specify the file to be included using a URL (via HTTP or other supported wrapper - see Appendix J for a list of protocols) instead of a local pathname. If the target server interprets the target file as PHP code, variables may be passed to the included file using a URL request string as used with HTTP GET. This is not strictly speaking the same thing as including the file and having it inherit the parent file's variable scope; the script is actually being run on the remote server and the result is then being included into the local script.

1. Is this effect being produced by the Zend optimizer, perhaps?

No, not at all.

2. If so, do you think there is a command I could enter in a common file like .htaccess or something ...

No, if you're specifying the http protocol in your include it's going to use the http protocol to get the file. Plain and simple.

Hopefully your editor has a "replace all in files" function... or at least a "find in files" function (which EditPlus, aka the best editor in the world, has 😃 ). The other option would be to setup your web server to not parse .inc files.

lrgiblet

Thanks Codito.

It's great that there are some PHP addicts around.

You have answered my question. I don't know if it is I or my partner who is responsible for including via http, but I suppose it's time to reform our ways. I think I might be able to find some search and replace script to run through my directories.

Thanks again.

Larry