[Resolved] Multiple Dynamic Inludes

[shaneH]

I am not sure if my question qualifies as a newbie question but since I think I am newbie (to php) I will start here.

I know that PHP can be used to setup a site that technically only has one page that you are ever on just the main contents changes based on user interface.

I saw an example of this on a different forum that the links were like so:

<a href="index.php">Home</a>
<a href="index.php?faqs=1">F.A.Q.</a>
<a href="index.php?contact=1">Contact</a>
<a href="index.php?ect=1">Other links</a>

and in the main body of your site you would put something like so:

<?
if ($faqs) {include "faqs.php";}
if ($contact) {include "contact.php";}
if ($ect) {include "otherlinks.php";}
else {include "home.php";}
?>

I have been helping a non-profit organization with there web site, and as you see it above it does not work on there web host but it does work on my web host. On there web host I get undefined variable: blah blah blah. Yes the difference is caused by registered_globals being set to "off" on there host and set to "on" on my hoste. So I changed the code like so:

if (isset($faqs)) {include "faqs.php";}

so now there is no undefined variables but now the problem is it doesn't do anything when I click a link with the site running on there web host but with it running on my web host it loads the new contents (faqs.php) above the old contents (home.php).

I find this all extremely frustrating because as the code is demonstrated originally, I was able to get it to work on another site that I had helped setup. I am guessing that the one site that it did work with had some other coding, done by someone else, that made it work but due to the complexity of that site I am unable to figure out what they did if anything.

Any insite would be helpful, Thanks

[devinemke]

code your links like this:

<a href="index.php?page=home">Home</a> 
<a href="index.php?page=faq">F.A.Q.</a> 
<a href="index.php?page=contact">Contact</a> 
<a href="index.php?page=links">Links</a>

code your include like this:

if (isset($_GET['page'])) {$page = $_GET['page'];}
else {$page = 'home';}

include($page . '.php');

warning! always validate GET input before using the code above. for example: store all page names in an array and use [man]in_array[/man] to check before passing to [man]include[/man].

[shaneH]

That worked great best of all it's more compact and can save me time adding new links. The prefect solution.

Thanks

[shaneH]

I have a new question (problem) based on this.

I found out today they are looking to add some additional content to there site. Most of the content is material that they have produced over the last few years and it is presently stored on their computers. I am going to add a new section and call it digital library or something like that (this part is easy).

Now they have 50 or 60 of these documents, booklets ect. and the best way to make them accessible over the web is as PDF files referenced in a database. Now the problem, there web host has a lousy database setup. Not a problem, they don't anticipate adding a lot over the next year until there present web hosting expires and they can get something better (and a lot cheaper, yikes!). So I am going to just use standard html links. But thats not as easy as it seems if I am using the method described above. Many of the documents, or whatever you call them, have titles that are 10 or more words long and having to use these titles, to avoid confusion, as the links (index.php?page=some really really really excessively long title), the link names, and have them referenced in the array makes that a really difficult task.

Hoping not to sound to lazy I was wondering if there is a good way link to these files.

A thought just hit me, is there a way to retrieve file names out of a particular directory and have them organized and listed on to a web page and linked to there corresponding file?

And just in case someone should like this have maybe a short description or image associated with that file???

I am going to post this and go do some checking around I think I saw something on this but if anyone has some good suggestions let me know.

[devinemke]

a basic example of listing all files in a dir and creating links:

<?
$path = '/path/to/dir/';
$handle = opendir($path);
while (($filename = readdir($handle)) !== false)
{
	if ($filename != '.' && $filename != '..')
	{
		$file_array[] = $filename;
	}
}
sort($file_array);

foreach ($file_array as $value)
{
	echo '<a href="' . $path . $value . '">' . $value . '</a><br>';
}
?>

change the $path variable to whatever dir you want (don't forget the trailing slash)

[shaneH]

Well I need to take everything one step further now.

So that you know exactly how each section is coded I have include them below for your reference (if you feel the urge to check them for problems go ahead).

Main content area of index.php

<?
$new_page = array( "home" , "calendar" , "library" , "reviews" , "bulletin" , "directions" , "contact" );

if (isset($_GET['page'])) {$page = $_GET['page'];} 
else {$page = 'home';} 

if (in_array("$page", $new_page)) {include($page . '.php');}
?>

Code for the Digital Library (library.php)

<? 
$path = 'library/'; 
$handle = opendir($path); 
while (($file_name = readdir($handle)) !== false) 
{ 
    if ($file_name != '.' && $file_name != '..' && $file_name != '_vti_cnf' && !strstr($file_name, '.php') && !strstr($file_name, '.jpg') && !strstr($file_name, '.gif')) 
    { 
        $file_array[] = $file_name; 
    } 
} 
sort($file_array); 
$num_columns = 2; 
$col = 0;
while (list(, $value) = each($file_array)){
	$col++; 
	$file_parts = explode (".", $value);
	$file_title = $file_parts[0];
	if ($col == 1) { 
		echo "<tr>";  

	}  

	echo '<td id="libbook"><a id="liblink" href="index.php?page=' . $file_title . '"><b>' . $file_title . '</b></a></td>'; 
	if ($col == $num_columns) { 
		echo "</tr>";  

		$col = 0; 
	}
} 
?>

Now what I need is for include from the index.php segment of code to include the value of $file_title form the digital library.

I am assuming that to do this the value of $file_title needs to be in the $new_page array but to put it in there before it has been defined will just cause an error. And I don't see how I could define it before hand.

I keep looking back over everything I just got this gut feeling that this is has an easy solution.

Also one other note whatever solution is arrived at must also allow me to pass the value of $file_title to the new page. (I think I have this part figured out)

[shaneH]

I was right in thinking there was an easy solution.

My brain must have been out to lunch when I thought up that question.

It would be much easier to just have library.php call up another template file and just pass the value of $file_title to that template file and have the template file use $file_title to call up the relavant images, information and links.

Since I have the code displayed now, if anybody notices something I should change or has a good tip let me know.