<!DOCTYPE html>, </html>, <?PHP...<? & back to HTML...

Rivet

Hope this isn't OT here; don't think so, but will bow to the PTB decision; seems On Topic to me.

Win 7 HP, fully up to date, XAMPP 1.7.4 for local server, using PHP 5.3.25 (same as my remote servers use). Initial design done with noteTAB, then use Notepad++ for maintence and TSing.

One thing I've never been able to figure out on my own research (Google, Manual, w3, sitepoint, etc. etc. is the proper way to break into HTML more than once on a PHP page.

Some say just use <HTML> but how does the server know WHAT html to use in that case?
Thus, I've been using <!DOCTYPE html> the first time I drop into html, and later in the script, I simply use <html>, figuring the html 5 stage has already been set.

I'm still learning HTML 5 but it seems to serve me well and I've had no problems at all with it. Yet ;-).

Am I correct in my above assumption, or am I in error?

Thanks for your insight,

Rivet`

NogDog

The doctype and html tags are two separate entities: one does not replace the other. Your basic HTML 5 mark-up will be something like:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title</title>
  <head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello, World!</h1>
  <body>
</html>

When creating a PHP script that co-mingles HTML and PHP code, you simply surround any PHP code with <?php ... ?> tags so that the PHP parser knows what's going on, but there is no need to add additional <html> tags (which in fact would cause your mark-up to be invalid):

<?php 
header('Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8');
?><!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title</title>
  <head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello, World!</h1>
    <p>It is now <?php echo date('H:i:s'); ?> on this web server.</p>
  <body>
</html>

johanafm

NogDog;11034065 wrote:
(which in fact would cause your mark-up to be invalid)

Use validator.w3.org to validate your html code.

Rivet

NogDog;11034065 wrote:
The doctype and html tags are two separate entities: one does not replace the other. Your basic HTML 5 mark-up will be something like:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title</title>
  <head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello, World!</h1>
  <body>
</html>
When creating a PHP script that co-mingles HTML and PHP code, you simply surround any PHP code with <?php ... ?> tags so that the PHP parser knows what's going on, but there is no need to add additional <html> tags (which in fact would cause your mark-up to be invalid):
<?php 
header('Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8');
?><!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title</title>
  <head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello, World!</h1>
    <p>It is now <?php echo date('H:i:s'); ?> on this web server.</p>
  <body>
</html>

Great; learned from that response, but have a couple other questions:
1. In the first example, is the first <html>, prior to the doctype, necessary?
My question specifically relates to a .PHP page, but I've never used the <html> preceding the doctype in html pages. And I'm pretty sure I made it thru the W3C validator but can't swear to it.

In the second example, let's say I added more PHP after the HTML; then switch back to PHP and finally back to HTML.
The reason for the jumping back and forth is to present data onscreen in the order I want it.

<?php 
header('Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8');
?><!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title</title>
  <head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello, World!</h1>
    <p>It is now <?php echo date('H:i:s'); ?> on this web server.</p>
  <body>
</html>

[COLOR="#FF0000"]

<?PHP
... 
Further verification, session checking, etc. prior to the mail() function
</?
<html 
mail function, server ack, message to sender, etc..
</html>

[/COLOR]

Don't be afraid I'll respond badly to criticism if it appears; I'm here to learn and these are things I haven't been able to research. I'd rather stick to facts, though. 🙂

Thanks much,

Rivet`

NogDog

Nope, there should only be one <html> tag, eventually terminated by one </html> tag in the entire web page.

The basic HTML structure I provided in my first reply is it: there should only be one overall <html> section, it should include one <head> section and one <body> section. Everything else gets output within those sections as relevant (e.g. <style>, <link> and <script> sections within the <head>; and <div>, <p>, <form>, <table>, etc. within the <body>). Anything not within <?php ... ?> tags is considered to be part of the HTML mark-up, you don't have to keep telling the browser it's in HTML mode, since it will not, in fact, ever see any of the actual PHP source code (just its output).

bradgrafelman

The thing is, you need to look at this from the client perspective of things. By that point, there won't be any <?php ... ?> tags at all; all of that text will be removed (having been executed by the PHP interpreter already).

In other words, this:

<?php  

header('Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8'); 
?><!DOCTYPE html> 
<html> 
  <head> 
    <title>Title</title> 
  <head> 
  <body> 
    <h1>Hello, World!</h1> 
    <p>It is now <?php echo date('H:i:s'); ?> on this web server.</p> 
  <body> 
</html>

is the same as this:

<!DOCTYPE html> 
<html> 
  <head> 
    <title>Title</title> 
  <head> 
  <body> 
    <h1>Hello, World!</h1> 
    <p>It is now 12:15:23 on this web server.</p> 
  <body> 
</html>

in terms of what the client will see.

traq

Rivet;11034087 wrote:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title</title>
  <head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello, World!</h1>
  <body>
</html>
1. In the first example, is the first <html>, prior to the doctype, necessary?

In your first example (above) there is no [font=monospace]<html>[/font] tag prior to the doctype. If there were one, it would be invaild.

Rivet;11034087 wrote:
2. In the second example, let's say I added more PHP after the HTML; then switch back to PHP and finally back to HTML.
The reason for the jumping back and forth is to present data onscreen in the order I want it ...

Note that once you send output to the page, you can't do anything else that requires sending headers. In your example here, you mention "checking the session," but you haven't started a session yet (unless you have one auto-started?). Now that you've sent output, calling [font=monospace]session_start()[/font] will not be successful.

As NogDog says, just wrap PHP code in [font=monospace]<?php ?>[/font] tags. Anything outside the tags is not parsed, but output directly—effectively, it is exactly the same as [font=monospace]echo[/font]ing it.

NogDog

And when things start to get really messy with alternating lines of HTML and PHP, that's when you start giving thought to separating views from controllers and considering the use of template engines. 🙂

Rivet

Note that once you send output to the page, you can't do anything else that requires sending headers. In your example here, you mention "checking the session," but you haven't started a session yet (unless you have one auto-started?). Now that you've sent output, calling [font=monospace]session_start()[/font] will not be successful.

Right; I did omit it, but each of my pages begin with a session_start(); so I can assign session data needed on all three pages. I unset them as soon as I'm done with them.

Thanks for the observation.

Twayne`

Rivet

NogDog;11034089 wrote:
Nope, there should only be one <html> tag, eventually terminated by one </html> tag in the entire web page.

The basic HTML structure I provided in my first reply is it: there should only be one overall <html> section, it should include one <head> section and one <body> section. Everything else gets output within those sections as relevant (e.g. <style>, <link> and <script> sections within the <head>; and <div>, <p>, <form>, <table>, etc. within the <body>). Anything not within <?php ... ?> tags is considered to be part of the HTML mark-up, you don't have to keep telling the browser it's in HTML mode, since it will not, in fact, ever see any of the actual PHP source code (just its output).

OK. I think I can see what's going on now.

Thanks much for that; good information!

Twayne`