How to include header/footer/etc.php with content in between for each page?

Question

I'm looking for an object-oriented solution or possibly a framework that already exists to do what I'm hoping to do for a somewhat small back-end/admin project.

For instance, the system is to manage Projects. So there will be a header/footer/menu on every page. Two pages, for instance, will be projects.php and notes.php.

To include the header and footer on these pages I would normally do:

//header.php
<!-- Header Content Here -->
include menu.php

//projects.php
include header.php
<!-- My Projects Content Here -->
include footer.php

//notes.php
include header.php
<!-- My Projects Content Here -->
include footer.php

and have my links to each page just be '/projects/' or '/notes/'

I've also tried:

//index.php
include header.php
include projects.php
include notes.php
include footer.php

//projects.php
if(isset($_GET['projects']) {
<!-- My Projects Content Here -->

//notes.php
if(isset($_GET['notes']) {
<!-- My Notes Content Here -->

and have the links in my menu be '/index.php?projects' and '/index.php?notes'.

Both are frustrating and don't seem very fluid to me. I would like to upgrade my tactics here but am unsure the best way to go about it.

What's the best way? Is there a Framework that is lightweight and can manage these for me? I would like to keep the links at '/projects/' and '/notes/' but just be able to create an object that calls the content from projects.php and places it in automatically on that link click.

TLDR; - I don't want to have to place header/footer/etc.php as an 'include X' into every PHP page template file manually. I would like for it to know that every page needs it unless otherwise assigned.

Why not use $_GET['page'] which is equal to projects or notes. Based on the get your can load (include) the right php file — SuperDJ
– SuperDJ, Commented Aug 31, 2016 at 20:53
That's just the inverse of my second solution, right? Seems like the same annoyance there would exist it would just be written differently. — Picasso-ITS
– Picasso-ITS, Commented Aug 31, 2016 at 20:57
No beceause you don't have to write an if statement for evey file. Assuming that every header, footer, menu file consist of the same content — SuperDJ
– SuperDJ, Commented Aug 31, 2016 at 20:58
Did any of the answers help you? If not or if you still have problems update the question and let us know — SuperDJ
– SuperDJ, Commented Sep 1, 2016 at 17:32
Yea, definitely helped. I guess what I was looking for isn't feasible or I wasn't explaining it properly. I was hoping there was a better way. i.e., something like just having $projects = new PageTemplate(); and then have a list of the page objects that would be called and loaded when the subdirector was called.. like have the url /projects/. I didn't want to have any ?= variables in the url unless they were actually editing.. so like projects/?edit=1?project_id=12 instead of page.php?page=projects&edit=1&project_id=12. — Picasso-ITS
– Picasso-ITS, Commented Sep 2, 2016 at 14:34

SuperDJ · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-01 12:49:06Z

1

Create a file called something like page.php:

if(!empty($_GET['page'])) {
  // Could add check to see if file exists
  $page = $_GET['page']; // Being "notes" or "projects" 

  include 'header.php'; // Assuming this includes <head>, header, menu, functions etc. 
  include $page.'.php'; // Makes notes.php or projects.php
  include 'footer.php';

} else {
 echo 'Someting went wrong';
}

For links in menu it should be page.php?page=notes or page.php?page=projects

edited Sep 1, 2016 at 12:49

answered Aug 31, 2016 at 21:04

SuperDJ

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Comments

Forbs · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-31 20:54:03Z

0

Every file? Are you really sure you want to do that? It might cause data crash.

But if you insist, look for your php.ini file and find auto_prepend_file http://php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.auto-prepend-file

auto_prepend_file header.php // For Example

Now that you did that if you don't remove header.php from every program (or make sure include_once is used) then you might have php errors flying around.

answered Aug 31, 2016 at 20:54

Forbs

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2 Comments

Picasso-ITS Over a year ago

Well, not physically every file; as I also have files like "functions.php" that contain real functions that don't display anything. But, I would like to add header.php to the top of every "page of type X", for instance.

Forbs Over a year ago

This only applies to the file being called, not every file that exists so if you include functions.php you don't get a 2nd copy of header.php

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