[Resolved] Include text file, but save formatting

[skeetley]

I have a menu across the top of my page. The menu is really a from. When you click a word it submits and the right .txt file is supposed to show below. I can't it to show the file with the same formatting as if I went directly to the web address. I have tried using include, fopen, file, nl2br everything I can think off. I can't be the first to stumble across this. Any ideas guys, search didn't help me more than i already tried? Many thanks for reading my question.

[devinemke]

$contents = file_get_contents('textfile.txt');
echo nl2br($contents);

[skeetley]

Thanks devin, but I only have PHP Version 4.1.2 on this damn server so file_get_contents don't work. Any other ideas?

[devinemke]

$filename = '/path/to/file.txt';
$handle = fopen($filename, 'r');
$contents = fread($handle, filesize($filename));
fclose($handle);

echo nl2br($contents);

[skeetley]

Devin,
Good idea. I tried something like that one and yours. Both print the file but the formatting is gone.

Is this a lost cause?

[devinemke]

when you say formatting, you mean other than the line breaks? if you want to show all the extra whitespace you could do:

$filename = '/path/to/file.txt'; 
$handle = fopen($filename, 'r'); 
$contents = fread($handle, filesize($filename)); 
fclose($handle); 

echo '<pre>' . $contents . '</pre>';

[skeetley]

Devin,
Thanks, that was the ticket. You rule.