php include containing a function

joshuatw

I'm working on a photography portfolio website, using wordpress for the back end. I'm trying to generate includes depending on the name of the post. So I want to have a php script that will read the name of the post, using the wordpress function "the_title()", then will include a file called the posts name. For example, I have a post named "scenic-036", I want to include a file called scenic-036.php. The code I've tried is:

<?php
include('../includes/' .the_title(). '.php');
?>

which gives me the following error:

scenic-036<br />
<b>Warning</b>: main(../includes/
.php) [<a href='function.main'>function.main</a>]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found...

Any ideas on how to do this?

Josh.

bradgrafelman

Where is the_title() function defined? It looks like it's not returning anything, and PHP is trying to load ../includes/.php .

Something that worries me is that the error message talks about the HTTP request failing, though you shouldn't be including PHP files across an HTTP connection...

joshuatw

The function is defined in one of the wordpress files, template-functions-post.php. The function works when I'm when placed anywhere else in the php file, I use the function to call the correct image file.

As for the http request failing, I had used the full URI to try to include the file. I changed it after I was told that it was a bad idea to include a file that way. Why is it a bad idea to include a file using the full URI?

Josh.

bradgrafelman

A bad idea? If you're trying to run PHP code, you can't include it using HTTP. That doesn't make sense; if you could do that, then you're saying that you should be able to open up your internet browser, type in the address to your PHP scripts, and view the PHP source. Obviously, you can't do this, so PHP won't be able to see the code it's supposed to execute if you try to request the file across an HTTP connection.

What does PHP output if you do this:

echo '../includes/' .the_title(). '.php';

joshuatw

It outputs, "scenic-036../includes/.php"

bradgrafelman

Ah, there's the problem. The "the_title()" function isn't returning a string, it's immediately printing the string.

Since you said this function is a part of Wordpress, you might need to make some careful modifications to is (so as not to break Wordpress). What I would recommend is doing this:

Find where the the_title() function is declared, and modify it like so:

function the_title($output) {
    if($output == FALSE) {
        return $name; // you'll have to find how this function originally retrieved the name
    } else {
        // original code of the function goes here
    }
}

Then, you would use it as such:

include('../includes/' .the_title(FALSE). '.php');

If you don't understand my suggested modification, paste the original function declaration here and I'll show you what I mean.

joshuatw

From "template-functions-post.php"

function the_title($before = '', $after = '', $echo = true) {
$title = get_the_title();
if ( strlen($title) > 0 ) {
$title = apply_filters('the_title', $before . $title . $after, $before, $after);
if ( $echo )
echo $title;
else
return $title;
}
}

joshuatw

I got it figured out... I was staring at the code and realized that the "the_title()" function was calling another function and tried it... This is how I got it to work...

include('../includes/' .get_the_title(FALSE). '.php');

Thanks for your help. It's really great that there is a place for people, like me, that have no idea what they are doing. Again, thanks for you help.

bradgrafelman

You don't need the "FALSE" value in your code, since the fuction doesn't appear to take any arguments.

Don't forget to mark this thread resolved.