[RESOLVED] PHP and how HTML looks like in "view source"

[dinosoup]

I've never thought about this until now.

Before when using only HTML to write static pages, I would properly indent and stuff so the source code and the HTML structure would be easily readable by humans.

Now with PHP, the outputted HTML looks like a mess. I'm wondering if I should also keep that in mind and try to make the HTML outputted by PHP more readable. But just thinking about how I'd go about doing so seems like a lot of work. So is it practical or maybe there's an easy way to do so?

[Rodney_H_]

My preference here, but I suggest that you DO plan for properly formatted html output. Makes trouble-shooting a lot easier when needed.

So, when you start thinking about it, you are right, there is an extra step, but then it becomes second nature.

Rembmer to use the following to help you with your output:

<?php
// new line character is:  \n
// tab is:  \t

echo '<p>new line is backslash-n.</p>' . "\n";
echo '<blockquote>' . "\n";
echo "\t" . 'this is tabbed over nicely' . "\n";
echo '</blockquote>' . "\n";

?>

If you don't want to use a full tab stop you can just use spaces such as:

<?php
echo '<table>
  <tr>
      <td>This is a table cell</td>
  </tr>
</table>' . "\n";
?>

Remember, new line characters and tabs have to be utilized in DOUBLE-quotes, not single. SO if you don't like to use the concatenation operator, you can do this, if it is easier for you:

<?php

echo "<p>this is my $variable</p>\n"
echo "<p>that was my $variable</p>\n";

?>

Hope that helps, but I did warn you, it is just my opinion to output "neat" html when possible.

[dinosoup]

Thanks for the tips. Didn't know about the tab and newline characters.