remote scripting with php?

sunsun

Hi All,
I'm a php newbie. I would like to create my website using php. My situation is as below (pls refer to the diagram attached): By clicking btn1 in index.php, the content part will display page1.php. Is it call remote scripting? It is not create using frame, as the whole page will be loading (not just the content part). The header and all the buttons will not be transfer from the server, just page1.php. Can it be done? Thanks for your help.

Gasolene

what you want is some sort of basic content management system where the only thing on the page that changes is the content.

use a variable in the url to specify which record to display content from (this assumes your content is in a database, if not then you can use an include).

ie: index.php?page=1 would display content on page 1
index.php?page=3 would display page 3 ect...

// get page content
if( isset( $_GET['page'] ))
{
    // query table for content
    $sql = 'select * from mytable where id='  . $_GET['page'];

// or if content is in another file
include( 'page' . $_GET['page'] . '.php' );
}

Gasolene

to clarify something, the entire page will reload every time a new page is opened.

the browser is responcible for caching the images, ect...

sunsun

Hi all,

I'm a php novice. Thanks for Gasolene's tutorial. Could you or somebody else who knows php well kindly provides me a demo of the solutions for my problem (basic CMS using php)? Probably few php pages to show me how this page link to that page and vice versa. Thanks you guys in advance! 🙂

Gasolene

this is a very basic page controller...

index.php


// url = [url]www.yourdomain.com/index.php?page=2[/url]

// get page content form request data
$page = isset( $_GET['page'] )?$_GET['page']:1;

include( 'page-header.html' );
include( 'page-' . $page . '.html' );
include( 'page-footer.html' );

page-header.html

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<a href="?page=1">home</a>
<a href="?page=2">page2</a>
<a href="?page=3">page3</a>
<a href="?page=4">page4</a>
<a href="?page=5">page5</a>

page-footer.html

</body>
</html>

page-1.html

<p>hello world</p>

page-2.html

<p>foobar</p>

of course your html can have whatever you want.

you get get more complex by storing pages in database, then your menu can be created dynamically.

note: this is a very basic idea, you can get as complex as you want.

sunsun

To Gasolene, millions thanks to u for your demo, i fully understand how it works now! php is getting more interesting now. 🙂

sunsun

Hi Gasoline,

I can see some of the pages are created without complete basic html tags. Leave it that way, or do i have to add in <html><head></head><body></body></html> TAGS for each page? Could somebody pls assist? Thanks in advance!

Gasolene

no, the header and footer would apply to all pages. only the content would be inserted into the other pages.

obviously, you would have to impliment your own template into the header and footer.

as is, it will create a completely blank page.

also, note: if you are not planning on using databases or other servside functions, you may want to consider learning xml and xsl.

does the same thing but a bit better.