HTML stored in a PHP string...Good or Bad?

sjf905

I am coding a site that has lengthy HTML for the user navigation system (tabs) on each page. Not a styling issue (all CSS is in another file) but the navigation has a lot of options.

I would like to have a php file which accepts the current page as an arg, sets up one string with all the HTML for the navigation system according to the current page and returns that one string. Then I would of course include the file in all pages and call the function in one line, echo it and be done with it.

Is this bad style? Is there a better way to do it? Should I look out for any potential problems (other than replacing double quotes with single quotes)?

Thanks.

dougal85

bad. Storing it in PHP strings is tedious. It makes the code hard to maintian. You should really aim to keep the HTML and PHP seperate.

I'd use an external file with the HTML and require it if its got any PHP or use file_get_contents if its ONLY got html in it.

However, my preferred method is to use some sort of templating system.

NogDog

dougal85 wrote:
bad. Storing it in PHP strings is tedious. It makes the code hard to maintian. You should really aim to keep the HTML and PHP seperate.

I'd use an external file with the HTML and require it if its got any PHP or use file_get_contents if its ONLY got html in it.

However, my preferred method is to use some sort of templating system.

Hmmm...I don't see what you describe in the 2nd paragraph as being really any different than what the OP suggested; or am I misunderstanding one or both of you?

dougal85

Perhaps I had miss-understood. I had taken the original meaning to be literally putting HTML in PHP strings.

ie.

$html = "<html> <head> .................";

I was rather suggesting you had the contents of that in a file and required or output the contents of it.