Questions about using php and css together

Fireater989

So, I am new to php and am planning a site with over 100 pages and want to be able to edit them easily. One question I had was, is php ONLY for html where I rename my html pages and includes to php? I was reading on LissaExplains.comhttp://lissaexplains.com/html6.shtml#SSI about SSI and PHP and it was saying how SSI could be used for javascript, html, etc, all you have to do is rename pages to .shtml. Now, I don't want to use SSI, but how would the browser know what was html, css, javascript... if the extension is .txt?
Another question I have is, how does css apply to php? Im using a template with the style already made, I plan on cutting some of the html and placing it in a .php. Would I need to apply the style inside my include, or is it fine in my main page, where it is pointing to an external sheet?
Also, there are no problems integrating css with php is there?
Thanks in advance for your help

djjjozsi

Try to use database to store the contents for the pages. Then you can solve them with a single file.

Fireater989

Sorry, that doesn't help me any -_-

djjjozsi

The styles goes to your main index.php file, any other includes could use them.

Learn a little bit about databases, then you didn't need to cut the contents into small .php files and hardcode includes on different links.

Also, there are no problems integrating css with php is there?

You can create CSS styles in php, just echo out.

Fireater989

Im not looking at a database right now, though I will be, Im just wondering about the php includes, like an external file that is being linked to.

Fireater989

Ok, thanks, I am taking tuts on php right now and do plan on using a db, i was just wondering about how css applies to the db

djjjozsi

Fireater989;10935225 wrote:
Ok, thanks, I am taking tuts on php right now and do plan on using a db, i was just wondering about how css applies to the db

CSS styles goes into a css file and not into database.

johanafm

The browser fetches lots of things with separate requests: CSS files, script files, images, objects. And I've probably forgotten something. So, when the browser sees

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="path/to/file"></link>

it knows that it should fetch a file and treat it as CSS. Wether you name that file "file.css", "file.php" or "file.exe" doesn't matter at all to the browser. What does matter to the browser is the header information sent though. Your web server will automatically send a content-type: text/css for files ending in ".css".

However, if you need to create the css file dynamically with php, you'd need to name the file "file.php" (or tell your webserver what other file extensions should be parsed as php files). Then you should also send the appropriate content-type header yourself. Or you could keep static css data in a db and let a php script fetch it.

Where you put things and how you retrievve it doesn't matter at all to the browser. All it wants is a content-type header of type text/css and data containing valid css syntax.

Fireater989

Ok, that helps
@ I didnt mean that, the css file will apply style to my index page, so if i have a db embedded in that page, the css will apply the to php in the db, right?

NogDog

I think perhaps the answer to your question is that you simply need to remember that all the PHP stuff happens on the server, while the loading and implementation of the CSS happens on the client (the web browser). Thus it does not matter what PHP you use or how you use it on the server, at least with regards to CSS. All that matters is that the output you send to the browser is valid [X]HTML which includes the desired <link> tag for the CSS file you want to use. So regardless of how many includes your PHP file uses or other PHP-type things it does, all that matters in terms of the CSS styling is that you output that <link> tag withing the <head> section of your page output.

As far as the file name suffixes go, much of that depends on your web server configuration. The typical default set-up is that you have to name a file with a ".php" suffix in order to have it processed as PHP; but that is not a firm requirement. You can actually configure your web server settings to process any or all file suffixes as PHP if you so desire. It just depends on how much control you have/want over those settings and your particular needs and requirements.

Fireater989

YESSSSS THANK YOU!!!!
Hmm, another question, can an include reference to another include, like nesting? I think so, at least in CSS you can.

johanafm

Yes. You can pretty much think of include as a copy paste of the included file's contents. The include statement is replaced with everything from the included file, thus staying within the current scope.

Fireater989

Ok, if I am using a php script in my html document(also with a link to an external php sheet) my doctype remains the same(xhtml strict) but I still rename extension to .php and I still need to declare my script with <? ?>in my document? And do I not need to declare php in my external sheet(not db)? Is my external written in html with php declared with extension of .php or written in php with html declared with .php.
haha thanks

NogDog

You do not need to name your CSS stylesheet file with a .php suffix unless you want to do any PHP processing within it. If not, you can leave it as .css (or whatever suffix you want to use). If you do want to do any PHP processing in the CSS file, then give it a .php suffix and make this the very start of the file (before anything gets output):

<?php
header('Content-Type: text/css');
?>
/* rest of CSS file */

Fireater989

I didnt mean a css file, just a general db or external script that has a mix of stuff(no css, you answered that already)

johanafm

As pointed out before, you can generally assume that your file needs to be named .php if the web server should parse it as php. Moreover, any part in that file that you want to be considered php code, should be inside php opening and closing tags, <?php and ?> respectively.

Fireater989;10935285 wrote:
Ok, if I am using a php script in my html document

I believe you should rather think of it as "having a php script that creates html code". You can't call an html file and all of a sudden have it drop into php parsing. You can however call a php file that contains nothing but html, or partly html, or no html at all.

file.php

<?php
// file contains nothing but html code for doctype
require 'doctype.html';

// contains the exact same code
require 'doctype.php';

// And same thing again inside php tags
echo '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC
  "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">';

doctype.html and doctype.php

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC
  "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

The above contains no <?php ?>, so even doctype.php will just send all its content without any parsing (beyond looking for <?php of course)

Ashley_Sheridan

PHP can be used to output pretty much anything you want, although it defaults to HTML, which is reflected in the headers it sends out. I've used PHP to send out everything from CSS, Images, Videos, office documents, you name it. I thin your imagination is the limit here!

Ashley_Sheridan

PHP can output anything you want, from office documents, to images. As long as you send the right headers, and the content is correct, the output will be what you expect.