Creating a site template - need direction

[psyline]

This is the site I created a couple years back, and am working to revamp into PHP or some language where I can call in the content of each page into a template, so that I can make changes to the header, footer, and nav, without having to change it in 160 other pages.

I have created the basic PHP template here: http://www.ucsf.edu/cnba/Center/template_new.php

How does this work where I only make one change to the CSS and surrounding areas??

I need how to know make this dynamic (?) so that the content tables can be called or put in the middle.

Can you guide me in this?

Here is the real site that I am converting from html to php: http://www.ucsf.edu/cnba/Center

Thanks,
Adam

[Shrike]

The functions which will help you on your way are [MAN]include[/MAN] and [MAN]require[/MAN]. They both have the same effect, but if a require()'d file does not exist PHP will generate a fatal error and stop. With include() PHP generates a warning and carries on processing the rest of the script. To illustrate with a basic script:

<?php
require( '/path/to/templates/siteheader.php' );
if( file_exists( "/path/to/templates/$_GET['page'].php" ))
{
  require( "/path/to/templates/$_GET['page'].php" );
}
else
{
  require( "/path/to/templates/homepage.php" );
}
require( '/path/to/templates/sitefooter.php ');
?>

You would call this script with a URL of myscript.php?page=pagename. The script include a file /path/to/templates/, then will check if a file exists at /path/to/templates/pagename.php, and require it if it does. If not it will fall back to homepage.php. Then finally require sitefooter.php.