[RESOLVED] faster include methods

DeathfireD

Hello, I have a large site with alot of pages. Normaly I use includes such as this:

<? switch($_GET['id'])
{
default:
case "news":
include "news.php";
break;

case  "submit":
 include "submit.php";
break;

}
?>

and then make an index.php page and have links pointing to index.php?id=submit and so on.

But as you can imagen the more pages you have, the slower the main site will load. So I was wondering is there a faster, better way of doing this? Im looking to speed up my web site as much as possible.

thorpe

But as you can imagen the more pages you have, the slower the main site will load.

Not true.

Your code however is terribly insecure (not too mention incorrect - default in the wrong place) and makes for alot of redundant typing. Try...

if (isset($_GET['id'])) {
  if (file_exists($_GET['id'].'.php')) {
    include $_GET['id'].'.php';
  }
}

DeathfireD

thorpe wrote:
Not true.

Your code however is terribly insecure (not too mention incorrect - default in the wrong place) and makes for alot of redundant typing. Try...
if (isset($_GET['id'])) {
  if (file_exists($_GET['id'].'.php')) {
    include $_GET['id'].'.php';
  }
}

So how exactly am I using this snippet? Like where am I adding the id names and page location? Is it like this?

if (isset($GET['id'])) {
if (file_exists($GET['id'].'idnamehere.php')) {
include $_GET['id'].'pagelocationhere.php';
}
}

Also how would I add more then one page? Can you give me an example with at least 5 pages in the include? Just name them test1, test2, test3, test4, test5

Edit Also how do I set the default page?

Btw much thanks for the speedy post.

thorpe

You dont need to add pages. That is the whole thing. If $GET['id'] == 'submit' as your example, then...

echo $_GET['id'].'php';

Will show submit.php

Get it?

thorpe

A default page is simple...

if (isset($_GET['id'])) {
  if (file_exists($_GET['id'].'.php')) {
    include $_GET['id'].'.php';
  }
} else {
  include 'default.php';
}

DeathfireD

oh ok so no matter what the id name is the page will load as long as it has a .php extension? Ahhh ok makes sence now. Thanks alot.

thorpe

As long as its in the same directory.... yes.

DeathfireD

so what if its not? I have maby 4 links that go to sub folders.

bodzan

I would change a code snippet to load a default page when no page is requested BUT also when requested page is not found...

if (isset($_GET['id'])) {
  if (file_exists($_GET['id'].'.php')) {
    include $_GET['id'].'.php';
  }
  else {
    include 'default.php';
  }
} 
else {
  include 'default.php';
}

Also, if you want your code to search into subdirectory as well you can add another check for no matter how many subdirectories for a requested page:

if (isset($_GET['id'])) {
  if (file_exists($_GET['id'].'.php')) {
    include $_GET['id'].'.php';
  }
  else {
     if(file_exists("subdir/".$_GET['id'].".php")){
       include 'subdir/'.$_GET['id'].'.php';
     }
     else{
       include 'default.php';
    }
  }
} 
else {
  include 'default.php';
}

DeathfireD

wow thanks guys, this helps me out alot. I'll go try it out now. I suppose the reason why my site was getting so slow is becuse of my sloppy case statment :/ Hopfully this will speed it up a bit.

thorpe

A big case statement would have almost no effect on speed, you wouldn't even notice it im afraid.

DeathfireD

ya but you said it was written wrong. I had about 30 includes using that case method and it caused the page to slow down for every new case added. It wasnt much but I could see it going from 2 seconds to 10 seconds and up as I added more lol.

DeathfireD

bodzan wrote:
Also, if you want your code to search into subdirectory as well you can add another check for no matter how many subdirectories for a requested page:
if (isset($_GET['id'])) {
  if (file_exists($_GET['id'].'.php')) {
    include $_GET['id'].'.php';
  }
  else {
     if(file_exists("subdir/".$_GET['id'].".php")){
       include 'subdir/'.$_GET['id'].'.php';
     }
     else{
       include 'default.php';
    }
  }
} 
else {
  include 'default.php';
}

well this didnt work for me. I tryed it as you had it then I tryed changing the subdir to the folder it is in (IE. news/) but still a no go. Everything else thats in the root folder works fine though.

edited Damn I get it, ID name is the actule name of the file. So show_articles.php would be the id anme index.php?id=show_articles 🙁 o well works now.

bodzan

subdir in my example is the name of the subdirectory you want to search a page in...

So if you are in a folder news and you have a subforder named details you should rename subdir into details:

if(file_exists("details/".$_GET['id'].".php")){
       include 'details/'.$_GET['id'].'.php';
     }

And this code would search for requested page in that subfolder as well...

Weedpacket

Still insecure - if anything, even more insecure than the original.

if(file_exists("details/".$_GET['id'].".php")){
       include 'details/'.$_GET['id'].'.php';
     }

could be used to run any PHP file in the filesystem.

Safer would be to keep an array of allowable pages, and only load the requested page if it is one of those.

$allowable_pages=array('news', 'submit', /*...*/);
if(in_array($_GET['id'], $allowable_pages) && file_exists($_GET['id'].'.php'))
{
    include $_GET['id'].'.php';
}

With the existing enhancements for subdirectories as needed. Also, the array need not be hardcoded (though it's worth thinking about for maximum performance), but instead generated by reading through the directory/directories where allowable pages are to be found and seeing what's there.

DeathfireD

Thanks Weedpacket, Ill take what you posted and try and lern from it.