Is there any reason to *not* use this PHP?

[Samuel Kallen]

This is related to the Western Michigan University web site.

The entire university uses a dreamweaver template, so any time I want to change a menu item, or an address, I have to change and re-upload all fifty pages in the site I run.

So I took it out of the template, cut the template into three parts, and named the top top.php and the bottom end.php.

Then, on each page, instead of having all the template code, I just have

{?PHP include ('top.php') ?}

content content content content
content
content
content

{?PHP include('end.php') ?}



This seems to work pretty well (compare this page, which uses it, with this page, which doesn't), but I'd like some input before I start using it with more popular pages.

For more documentation, go here

[Michael Fienen]

That's similar to a technique I used to use on an old site I used to run. I never had any real problems with it. I might recommend adding in some error checking though, so if for some reason one of those files doesn't exist or such, it will load some kind of default.

I can't testify to if there is a way more secure than this (assuming this is insecure, which I don't think it really is), but I know it never gave me problems.

[Nathan Chapman]

I use that same method. Works great and saves time. You might consider breaking up your template into smaller includes. We have includes for our main menu, quickjump, search, sidemenu and footer links. This way I can have several different dreamweaver templates, but have the same includes on each. You can have variety and still be synched up in the important areas.

If you think you might use something besides PHP, you should used the the .inc extension instead of .php. We mainly use ASP.Net, but we also do a little PHP. Incs keep us from having to make different versions of the same include. The only problem with an inc file is that you can't use Dreamweaver's design mode with it, which may not be an issue for you. I think you can also do htm and html extensions for includes.

Side note - In case you don't already know, Incs are viewable through the browser, so if you plan to have php code included that has database connection passwords you should use a php extension, and store it in a secure location.

@Michael - Did you find a more efficient method?

[Michael Fienen]

Heh, yeah, a CMS. Hehe.

When I first started SuperSatellite like 6 years ago, it had a completely different purpose from what I use it for today (now just my blog, running Wordpress). Back then I was just getting started on the hardcore webmaster stuff, and one of the first things I pursued was creating a templating script to get me away from static pages. Just something like Sam was talking about, drop a header and footer onto pages so I didn't have to keep track of them all manually. I used it in conjunction with a CGI news script called Coranto to produce news files and ID arrays that effectively came together as a simplistic CMS. It wasn't long after that real CMS's started getting pretty good though, and the CGI script for news I was using wasn't very reliable.

Basically I had a file, view.php, that served as the page builder. It then took a variable called "page," checked it against the news ID array, and loaded the proper news file, which was basic HTML output by the CGI script. So it'd be like http://www.domain.com/view.php?page=home, home would reference an ID (a random 24 character string, this protected against file injection), and the ID would link to the news file. This had the advantage that the news files themselves didn't even need includes in them, since view.php read them in. Today, I'd probably use mod_rewrite though with simple URIs in place of variable laden URIs.

Actually, I still have backups of the old version of the site, I'd be happy to share my code if it interests anyone. Just understand that it was quite literally my first foray into PHP coding, and I haven't even touched it in probably 5 years (nor do I have interest in it, since I don't need it for anything, so if there are bugs, then there are bugs. I bet there are bugs :D ).

[Steve]

One method that does work with Dreamweaver's Design mode is the server-side include. It does precisely the same thing you're trying to do, except it doesn't require PHP to run.



Gotcha #1: You need support from your Web server, and the server might need to be configured to use it. I think Apache has had this forever, but by default config used to only work with the .shtml extension. You would also need Options Includes in the folder you're running (which might be set by default, or which you might be able to turn on with an .htaccess file, again, in Apache).

Gotcha #2: If you need to run PHP, then I don't think SSIs are strictly compatible with the PHP environment. They didn't traditionally work with CGI output, either. That said, I believe Apache 2 is able to place multiple filters on a file before it is sent to the browser, so it might be a configuration thing and not a true limitation any more.

I've been using SSI for templates for 9+ years. It's worked well enough we're having trouble justifying a Web CMS.

[Michael Fienen]

We are using SSI's right now on our current generation web templates.

Gotcha #3: They don't work across subdomains (at least in our case, but I'm 90% sure that's a limitation of SSIs, and not settings)

SSIs are a very good stopgap solution though since it's so lightweight.

[Steve]

You could make it work across domains on the same box with symbolic links or aliased/virtual folders. You could just add a copy of the include files on each domain, too. (Probably not worth it if your entire site structure gives every office or department its own domain.)

My favorite all-time SSI use was to set up a virtual host on the server with the same site root folder, but using an alias for the template folder where all the SSI goodies were. Instant site upgrade preview.

As for use across domains, I think you can put a fully-qualified URL as a PHP include, right?

<?php include('http://www.someplace.edu/template/top.ssi'); ?>