I'm designing a relatively simple site for a friend. I would like to impliment php so that he can change his header/footer without having to go back through every file. Problem is, I'm pretty much totally unfamiliar with how php works. Is there a simplistic way to do this? I've seen a few answers for how to make a php header but they all seem different and I haven't had much success. I'm not saying they don't work (I probably did it wrong) but the simpler in this case, the better.
Thanks!
Besides just using include() or include_once() to include the header and footer, one thing I have found useful is being able to have a custom page title or custom head tags to be included for each page, yet still have the header in a partial include. I usually accomplish this as follows:
In the site pages:
<?php
$PageTitle="New Page Title";
function customPageHeader(){?>
<!--Arbitrary HTML Tags-->
<?php }
include_once('header.php');
//body contents go here
include_once('footer.php');
?>
And, in the header.php file:
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title><?= isset($PageTitle) ? $PageTitle : "Default Title"?></title>
<!-- Additional tags here -->
<?php if (function_exists('customPageHeader')){
customPageHeader();
}?>
</head>
<body>
Maybe a bit beyond the scope of your original question, but it is useful to allow a bit more flexibility with the include.
Just create the header.php file, and where you want to use it do:
<?php
include('header.php');
?>
Same with the footer. You don't need php tags in these files if you just have html.
See more about include here:
http://php.net/manual/en/function.include.php
You can do it by using include_once() function in php. Construct a header part in the name of header.php and construct the footer part by footer.php. Finally include all the content in one file.
For example:
header.php
<html>
<title>
<link href="sample.css">
footer.php
</html>
So the final files look like
include_once("header.php")
body content(The body content changes based on the file dynamically)
include_once("footer.php")
You can use this for header: Important: Put the following on your PHP pages that you want to include the content.
<?php
//at top:
require('header.php');
?>
<?php
// at bottom:
require('footer.php');
?>
You can also include a navbar globaly just use this instead:
<?php
// At top:
require('header.php');
?>
<?php
// At bottom:
require('footer.php');
?>
<?php
//Wherever navbar goes:
require('navbar.php');
?>
In header.php:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no">
</head>
<body>
Do Not close Body or Html tags!
Include html here:
<?php
//Or more global php here:
?>
Footer.php:
Code here:
<?php
//code
?>
Navbar.php:
<p> Include html code here</p>
<?php
//Include Navbar PHP code here
?>
the simpler, the better.
index.php
<?
if (empty($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'])) {
$name="index";
} else {
$name=basename($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']);
}
$file="txt/".$name.".htm";
if (is_readable($file)) {
include 'header.php';
readfile($file);
} else {
header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
exit;
}
?>
header.php
<a href="index.php">Main page</a><br>
<a href=?about>About</a><br>
<a href=?links>Links</a><br>
<br><br>
the actual static html pages stored in the txt folder in the page.htm format
