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Php Include Explained, Written for novice users
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IamShipon1988
post Dec 4 2007, 11:50 PM
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Title: php Includes
Language: php, XHTML, CSS
Skill Level: Basic
Author: Sazzad Hossain
Demo: http://www.amuz.us

Authors Note: PHP is perhaps one of the simplest language you can earn that can grant you much freedom with your site. In addition, it can also make your life a lot easier. If you are a web-designer you will see why. First of all, php has many functions that allow you to substitute for a long list of codes. For example, in this tutorial I will talk about php include. What php include basically does is takes an entire page of coding from one location and brings it to the page where you requested it. So if I have a head section located in "/include/head.php" and I want it to show up in my index.php file; all I have to do is call for it using php include.

So whats an advantage of include?
If you want to modify your site, and you have tons of page, and do not want to modify each one of them separately; when you use php include, all you have to modify is the file your including. In this example, all you have to do is modify the header.php and footer.php (also the style.css) that will change the layout to whatever you wish. It sort of acts as an StyleChanger effect but it requires a bit more work.

Step 1: Create the file you want to call for. Example, this header file: "includes/header.php." So we have these codes for the header file:
CODE
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
    <title>

    </title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="includes/style.css" />
</head>
<body>
<div id="holder">
<!-- holds the title and the navagation bar -->
<div class="header">

    <!-- holds the logo -->
    <div id="logo">
        <img src="../images/logo.idontknow" alt="RIT Web Dev Logo" />
    
    </div>

    <div id="nav">
    <br />
        <a href="index.php" alt="home">Home</a>|
        <a href="forum.php" alt="forum">Forum</a>|
        <a href="members.php" alt="members">Members</a>|
        <a href="about.php" alt="about">About</a>|
        <a href="contact.php" alt="contact">Contact</a>
    </div>
    <hr />
    </div>

Step 2: Since we will not have the ability to edit this page for the pages that will have a different title, we will need to add a variable that will allow us to accomplish that. So in order for us to give custom title to our main pages, we will need to replace the title tags with the following:
CODE
<title>
<?php
    echo $title;
?>
</title>

Step 3: Now lets create our footer file (you can create a sidebar, but I'm skipping that for the sake of time). We don't have to make any changes in this file unless you want to include something else from another location. Lets call this file footer.php and put it also in the includes folder.
CODE
    <hr />
    <div class="copyright">
        © 2007 RIT Web Developers, All Rights Reserved <br />
            <a href="contact.php"> Contact Us </a>
    </div>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Step 4: Okay, since we are now done with all the files we want to include in our index.php file, lets create the most important file: index.php. A general HTML file without header and footer will look something like this:
CODE
<div id="content">
    <h1> Content Title </h1>
    <p>
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Fusce quis ante.
    Ut sit amet arcu eu lacus sodales egestas. Sed metus risus, placerat vitae,
    molestie sit amet, consequat eu, erat. Quisque tincidunt, urna sed
    pellentesque adipiscing, risus nulla congue urna, et pharetra tortor massa
    in leo. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes,
    nascetur ridiculus mus. Quisque tellus. Phasellus iaculis lacinia diam. In
    nonummy, tortor id rutrum fermentum, metus lacus ultrices turpis, sit amet
    hendrerit pede leo vitae neque. Aenean lacinia metus eu tellus. Quisque
    tempor dolor at velit. Etiam luctus fermentum justo. Pellentesque erat
    mauris, consectetuer a, commodo at, ultrices vel, lacus. Proin sit amet
    leo. Vivamus sit amet tellus.
    </p>
</div>

But that does not include our header.php and footer.php. So we need to call for it. We can accomplish this by using 3 lines of php codes. So above all the codes in our index.php code, we want to include our header. We can do this by pasting the following code:
CODE
<?php
    include("includes/header.php");
?>

Step 5: Remember when we added echo $tittle; in our header to allow us to give the page custom title? Well this is the additional work needed to accomplish that. Before the area where it states include("includes/header.php"); we will add the following line of title:
CODE
    $title = "Page 1";

Simply replace the Page 1 with your own page title.
Step 6: Now its time for us to call our footer. This can be accomplished the same way as in step 4. Simple paste the following code towards the bottom of the index.php file.
CODE
<?php
    include("includes/footer.php");
?>


Well your done! What you have to note is that you can place footer.php and header.php in any folder you want, just make sure you call it correctly. Many php programmers make that mistake, thereby end up spending hours finding the problem, although the problem is simple. Just as a word of warning/caution Windows versions of PHP prior to PHP 4.3.0 do not support accessing remote files via this function.

If you put all these codes together, you should get a page similar to the demo page (unless I end up modifying the page). If you want to use the same css, then here it is:
CODE
.copyright {
}
.header {
    border: thick #000000;
    text-align:center;
}
#holder {
    margin: auto;
    width: 700px;
}
#logo {
}
#main {
}
#nav {
}
/***************
    Links
***************/
a:hover {
    text-decoration:underline;
}
a {
    text-decoration:none;
    color:#0066CC;
}


Cool Extras:
- PHP Date & Time function
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Ed
post Dec 5 2007, 01:07 AM
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Thanks for taking the time to write this IamShipon1988, I'm sure someone will find enlightenment in it smile.gif.

Little bit of constructive criticism, first one is because I'm pedantic; includes, requires etc should really not include the parenthesis as they're language constructs as opposed to functions. Doesn't hinder it at all, it's just better to write them without the suggestion they're functions.

Second one is just to include possibly an overall finished article with the head, body and footer.

Other than those minor bits, nice job.
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MrTouz
post Dec 5 2007, 10:59 AM
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basically include = iframes

its installing an exterior content to the page but differently then the iframe the code you include is directly added to the rest of the code like a puzzle smile.gif.

example :

i include my header which is ( <table><tr> )

than i have my content which is (<td> /<td> )

i include my footer which is ( </tr></table>)

which is kind of like a puzzle it takes part of codes from different places to make a big one !
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IamShipon1988
post Dec 6 2007, 08:11 PM
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Bread
Thank you for your comment. Yes it is true that you do not need the parenthesis, however, it does help a bit with the organization. I know when coding in Java or C, I used to delete certain characters when using the get function because I didn't know where the file location name started. So to prevent that form happening in PHP, like to use the parenthesis. But its really solely up to the user.

MrTrouz
Yes it is true that it is "sort of like a iframe" however it is very different. Here's something that I once read a while ago that helped explain things for me.

iFrames can display another website's information, something include's can't. If you are passing information from the include, you can only do that with an include, not an iframe. iFrames load a page onto a certain file, includes do not. It rather gathers the source code from a file and imports it to whichever other file has called for it. One thing that people say is includes make your website load slow. Yes, an include has to be loaded on each page, but it gets cached and loads extremely fast after a while.

If you would like more information here is the book for the include function that the creators of PHP had created: http://us.php.net/include/

Please do note that the include function (if you observe carefully) is used in many of the scripts created (php based). It can be listed on the index.php file as
CODE
includes="config.php"
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MrTouz
post Dec 7 2007, 11:13 PM
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CODE
Yes, an include has to be loaded on each page, but it gets cached and loads extremely fast after a while.


the CACHE ... that is why my site loads a lot faster, before i had to wait till it showed not the content.. mostly the images just load at once.

well i have to wait the first time i ever get on the page... but the second time.. it just pops it up smile.gif

i started using includes a week ago, and im sure im about to use it for a really long time.
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IamShipon1988
post Dec 10 2007, 09:05 PM
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Well I'm really glad to hear that. Includes is a great function that many php coders love to use.
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Paranoid
post Dec 12 2007, 02:30 AM
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Includes let me update my new layout/update large sections of my site without having to change every single web page of mine.
This feature is really nice...
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eJGDesigns
post Dec 13 2007, 08:45 PM
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QUOTE
the CACHE ... that is why my site loads a lot faster, before i had to wait till it showed not the content.. mostly the images just load at once.


How do i do this what you have done?

Thanks
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IamShipon1988
post Dec 14 2007, 10:15 PM
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eJGDesigns, php includes does this automatically after the first visit. Its a built in function that is recorded into your browser. Just use includes and the chche work will take care of itself.
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doughnut
post Dec 15 2007, 02:44 AM
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I Love PHP includes="file.xxx"

lol smile.gif
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IamShipon1988
post Dec 15 2007, 06:28 AM
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QUOTE(doughnut @ Dec 15 2007, 02:44 AM) *
I Love PHP includes="file.xxx"

Me tooo!!! Before in c, you had to do a lot of extra coding to get what that 1 statement does...its soo awesome!
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Eibwen
post Dec 18 2007, 11:26 AM
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You also can do require_once "file.xxx"; or require "file.xxx"; smile.gif
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IamShipon1988
post Dec 19 2007, 06:37 AM
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Well yes you can use require_once, but sometimes people want to use the function more than once. People normally use require_once for stuff like config.php files where they want to require people to login to the account.
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doughnut
post Dec 23 2007, 01:35 PM
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QUOTE(IamShipon1988 @ Dec 15 2007, 06:28 AM) *
Me tooo!!! Before in c, you had to do a lot of extra coding to get what that 1 statement does...its soo awesome!


ya i love that one to some times!!!! .... LOL laugh.gif

i use php...
CODE
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<title>{ Noise Bomb }</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="container"><?php require_once "settings.php"; settings ?>
    <h1 class="logo"><a href="/" title="{ Noise Bomb } v1.0"></a></h1>
    <h1 class="inserts"><?php require_once "sources/inserts.php"; inserts ?></h1>
    <ul id="navigation">
    <?php include "navigation.php"; navigation ?>
    </ul>
<div id="menu" class="menu-content">
    <h2>Menu</h2>
    <ul>
    <?php include "menu.php"; menu ?>
    </ul>
<div class="box">
    <?php require_once "promote_us.php"; promote_us ?>
</div>
</div>

<div id="footer">
    <?php include "footer.php"; Footer ?>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>


Cant giv out all my site info lol smile.gif
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Nexus
post Dec 23 2007, 03:00 PM
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This is a nice tutorial. I found about the php include and require/requie_once scripts by trial and error myself lol. That's the only bit of PHP I know at the moment.
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doughnut
post Dec 23 2007, 03:08 PM
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QUOTE(Nexus @ Dec 23 2007, 03:00 PM) *
This is a nice tutorial. I found about the php include and require/requie_once scripts by trial and error myself lol. That's the only bit of PHP I know at the moment.


Ya im new to php to but i look at how forums and scripts are med and i add to Or remake it to how i like it +i look up and try to help any one i can
like on my forum noisebomb community its now so plz feel free to come and post all you like.
O and i need some admin
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IamShipon1988
post Dec 24 2007, 07:09 AM
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Nice advertisement doughnut. Don't worry I wont say anything lol. I'm doing the same in my sig. I took a look at your forum and I have to say, I am not a big fan of MyBB. Although myBB was designed to look and function as a free version of IPB, it's not doing a good job in my opinion.

I often do trial and error. Often people send me messages online asking for help on scripts I have never heard of before. I just stare at the code for some time and I see the pattern. That way I can see what each line of code does. I think that is the best way to mod. lol.
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doughnut
post Dec 24 2007, 08:08 PM
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QUOTE(IamShipon1988 @ Dec 24 2007, 07:09 AM) *
Nice advertisement doughnut. Don't worry I wont say anything lol. I'm doing the same in my sig. I took a look at your forum and I have to say, I am not a big fan of MyBB. Although myBB was designed to look and function as a free version of IPB, it's not doing a good job in my opinion.

I often do trial and error. Often people send me messages online asking for help on scripts I have never heard of before. I just stare at the code for some time and I see the pattern. That way I can see what each line of code does. I think that is the best way to mod. lol.


Ya im starting to not like mybb im going to go back to "punbb" or "phpbb3", whqat you tank? "IamShipon1988" hey y did you not Register at my forum?

mellow.gif
Is all the link's "Personal | Hip Hop Clique | MicroDiary | Mint Tools | Fleech Media, Inc." your sites?
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IamShipon1988
post Dec 24 2007, 11:14 PM
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Yes they are. I'm in the process of renovating some of them. I own Fleech Media, Inc. and that company owns many sites and its all hectic right now. We started decorating all sites for christmas and I got a headache right now.

I did not register for the site because you are using myBB. LOL. Sorry I just don't like that board. It's very simple to hack/get a hold of the config file.
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doughnut
post Dec 25 2007, 04:02 PM
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QUOTE(IamShipon1988 @ Dec 24 2007, 11:14 PM) *
I did not register for the site because you are using myBB. LOL. Sorry I just don't like that board. It's very simple to hack/get a hold of the config file.


Wow ty i did not know that i del "mybb" and put up "phpBB3" so if you know how to work it plz help me out i do not get how to make a new forum/Category.

Ok hold on update i got a new "Category" but i can only see it win i am not login WTF?

Note: If you register "IamShipon1988" ill make you a admin so you can show me how to work it. if you cant you can be a admin to i like you lol smile.gif
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