PHP Forum

**talytech** · 05-12-2012, 05:04 PM

I am trying to simply display the content from my test.txt file into my HTML page. My test.txt file includes some html, something like this below:

Code:

My name is <b>tee louis</b>.  Welcome to my website.

I want to display that in my HTML DIV section. (Reason is, I don't wanna have to update my HTML page everytime I need to update the content of the text file.

I don't understand how to use PHP with HTML. I know how to create a php code page. And I've found code that gives examples on how to create the PHP script, but once you have the script how do you use it in your html?

can someone provide me an example on how to do this? Thank you

**chrishirst** · 05-12-2012, 05:19 PM

Server Side Includes

http://www.candsdesign.co.uk/article.../php-includes/

http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_includes.asp

**talytech** · 05-13-2012, 08:18 AM

I read up on PHP include and either I'm stupid or its extremely complex. I included the php code in my html page like this:

Code:

<body>
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="wrapthis">
 <div id="boxholder">
  <table border="0">
   <tr>
    <div id="header">
   </tr>
  </table>
 </div>
  
  
  <div id="content">
   <?php include "textfiles/theband.txt"; ?>
  </div>
</div>  
</div>
      
</body>
</html>

it returned nothing. I am totally confused. Do I have to create a seperate .php page that includes this line ..

Code:

<?php include "textfiles/theband.txt"; ?>

and then call the php page in the html page? I'm lost. Can someone please help me.

**chrishirst** · 05-13-2012, 08:54 AM

To run PHP code the document extension MUST be .php or you must have set other extensions to be parsed as PHP.

**PaulW** · 05-13-2012, 09:06 AM

Just to stress Chris's point - at the simplest, you will have two files, say a.php and b.txt

a.php will be as you've done above, b.txt can contain anything. The effect of the include is the same as cutting and pasting the contents into a.php

**talytech** · 05-13-2012, 10:53 AM

Ok.. this is really frustrating me ... I still get nothing returned in my html page

so .. here's my .php page called "content.php"

PHP code:

Code:

<?php include "textfiles/theband.txt"; ?>

My text file is in a folder called textfiles and the filename is theband.txt

And here's my html:

Code:

<body>
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="wrapthis">
 <div id="boxholder">
  <table border="0">
   <tr>
    <div id="header">
   </tr>
  </table>
 </div>
  
  
  <div id="content">
   <?php include "content.php"; ?>
  </div>
</div>  
</div>
      
</body>
</html>

I don't know how this should work together. I don't know if my php code is correct. I don't know if my html code is correct.

Can someone please provide me an example. This seems easy which is why I'm frustrated. I don't understand how this all fits together... TEXTFILE ..PHP ..HTML

**chrishirst** · 05-13-2012, 12:34 PM

what do you see when looking at the rendered sorce code?

And where is the "textfiles" directory in relation to the document.

**lizciz** · 05-13-2012, 03:14 PM

I think you missunderstood. The page which you refer to as your html page, that is the page which needs to have the .php extension, not the file you are trying to include. For example:

your_page.php could contain

HTML Code:

<html>
<head>
    ...
</head>
<body>
    ...
    <?php include "textfiles/theband.txt"; ?>
    ...
</body>
</html>

Also, you have forgot to close your #header div with a </div>.

**talytech** · 05-13-2012, 06:38 PM

oh so basically, rename band.html to band.php?

is that all? I'm totally brand new to php. I didn't know i can set it up like I set my html page up. what about the CSS styles sheet. that will still be linked and used to format the html too? Something like this?

Code:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Frameset//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-frameset.dtd"> 
<html>
<head>
<title>Love District Live</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/style.css" />

<script src="swfobject.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var params = {
   loop: "false",
   wmode: "transparent",
   bgcolor: "#000000"
};
swfobject.embedSWF("header.swf", "header", "900", "300", "6.0.65", false, false, params, false);
</script>

<script type="text/javascript">
var params = {
   loop: "false",
   bgcolor: "#000000"
};
swfobject.embedSWF("theband.swf", "theband", "900", "480", "8.0.0", false, false, params, false);
</script>
<!-- JavaScripts-->
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/s3Slider.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function() {
        $('#slider').s3Slider({
            timeOut: 3000
        });
    });
</script>
</head>

<body>
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="wrapthis">
 <div id="boxholder">
  <table border="0">
   <tr>
    <div id="header">
   </tr>
  </table>
 </div>
  
  
  <div id="content">
   <?php include "textfiles/theband.txt"; ?>
  </div>
 
</div>  
</div>
      
</body>
</html>

**PaulW** · 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by talytech

oh so basically, rename band.html to band.php?

Yes - that was what I was trying to say in my earlier reply re "you only need two files".

Two other points:

1) get in the habit of putting a small comment block at the top of each php file, eg

PHP Code:


			
<?php  
/* This module displays the home page. It contains no executable php other than an include of the standard band info */
?>

2) Relative pathnames, such as "textfiles/theband.txt" -- that assumes that the directory "textfiles" is in the same directory as the php file with the include -- if you have any confusion over this, post again.

**talytech** · 05-14-2012, 07:48 PM

Thanks Paul so much for that explanation. It wasn't registering at first.

Now, do I use the "include" feature to include my css style sheet? Because the php file removed my styles. It also didn't use any carriage returns from my text file.

I guess I have a whole lot more to learn with this PHP stuff.

**Physicsguy** · 05-14-2012, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by talytech

Now, do I use the "include" feature to include my css style sheet? Because the php file removed my styles. It also didn't use any carriage returns from my text file.

You don't to include the CSS with a PHP include. That would be the same as writing it out in <style> tags in the header each time. You can just use HTML's <link> to link the CSS:

HTML Code:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css" type="text/css" />

However, you could do the same thing in PHP:

PHP Code:


			
<?php include("css/style.***"); ?> <- Assuming you have <style> tags around your CSS, or:

<?php echo '<style type="text/css">'.file_get_contents('css/style.css').'</style>';?> would also work.

**chrishirst** · 05-15-2012, 12:14 PM

Quote:

also didn't use any carriage returns from my text file.

That's nothing to do with PHP. HTML does NOT use "carriage returns".
All "white space" which include line feeds and returns, is collapsed to a single space when parsed by the browser rendering engine.
To maintain plain text formatting (spaces, line feeds and carriage returns, tabs etc.) you need to put the text into

HTML Code:

<pre> (pre formatted text)</pre>

elements in the HTML document.