PHP Forum

**Webguy** · 08-25-2004, 03:23 PM

Hey everyone.

I am very new to php, but I am starting to get the hang of it. What I need to do is have all the links on my entire directory change just by changing one file. For example, if I wanted to changed even one link on all of my pages, I would manually have to go to each HTML page and do it one by one.

A little while ago I found the code do automatically updat all of your pages for you buy just changing the one txt file. help!

Thanks in advance for you help.

**DevelopedWeb** · 08-25-2004, 03:33 PM

Alright, the best and easiest way to do this is just to use a general "template" for your website.

If all of your pages have the same layout, chances are they have a great portion of the same code as well. What you can do is cut and paste the code that remains constant across all pages to new files, and include these files in your new PHP code by using the require function.

Let's say your HTML code looked like the following:

<HTML>
<TITLE>Title Here</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
<!--
BODY {
...
}
H1 {
...
}
</STYLE>
<SCRIPT language="Javascript" src="myjslibrary.js">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<TABLE>
<TR>
<TD>
<UL>
<LI><a href="link.html">Link
<LI><a href="link.html">Link
<LI><a href="link.html">Link
<LI><a href="link.html">Link
<LI><a href="link.html">Link
<LI><a href="link.html">Link
</UL>
</TD>
<TD>
Content goes here!
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
</BODY>
</HTML>

What you can do is save the part before the content and after the content as seperate files, as follows:

------------------------

<STYLE type="text/css">
<!--
BODY {
...
}
H1 {
...
}
</STYLE>
<SCRIPT language="Javascript" src="myjslibrary.js">

------------------------

That goes in the head section, so call it something like "head.inc.php".

Then, the beginning of the body ("top.inc.php", perhaps?)--

------------------------

<TABLE>
<TR>
<TD>
<UL>
<LI><a href="link.html">Link
<LI><a href="link.html">Link
<LI><a href="link.html">Link
<LI><a href="link.html">Link
<LI><a href="link.html">Link
<LI><a href="link.html">Link
</UL>
</TD>
<TD>

------------------------

Finally, the end of the body ("bottom.inc.php"?) --

</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>

------------------------

Now, you can set up your webpages as follows:

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Page Title Here</TITLE>
<?php require("head.inc.php"); ?>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<?php require("top.inc.php"); ?>
Content goes here!
Content goes here!
Content goes here!
Content goes here!
Content goes here!
<?php require("bottom.inc.php"); ?>
</BODY>
</HTML>

Now each of your pages will automatically update whenever you change the links on your sidebar, which will be saved as a seperate file that only requires one update.

**webwoRRks** · 08-25-2004, 04:43 PM

if you only want the links though, bung them in a php file like this;

PHP Code:


			
<?php

$links = array();

$links["Google"] = "http://www.google.com";

$links["Sky news"] = "http://www.sky.com/news";



foreach($links as $key=>$value) {

   echo "<a href=\"$value\">$key</a><br />\n";

}

?>

then just require() that wherever you want the links shown.

**hamish** · 08-26-2004, 09:07 AM

You could make a seperate links page, eg links.php, and then include that in your pages (this is that I do).

So, you haev your links.php file and in it you type:
<a href="index.php">Home</a>
<a href="design.php">Design</a>
<a href="contact.php">Contact Us</a>
<a href="about.php">About Us</a>

Then, you have you individual page, which are just regular php/html pages. In the place where you want the link to be, you use the "include" command of php:

<p>this is my page....blah blha...</p>

<p>click the links below to tour the site:</p>



<?php include("links.php"); ?>

Obviously, you will want to make it look pretty etc

This works well for me, and is very simple. This way, when you add a new link, just add it to the links.php file. It will change on every page.

Hope this helps.

Hamish