Hey i asked this question before but didnt get the right anwsers so im going to try again, maybe someone can write this code up so i can run it and see how it works...

Ok i want to make my webpage so that on the main.php i can click on a nav link and it will change the content but not the actual page, so that it is viewing the layout of the page somewhere else... do you know what i mean?

page.com?content=whatever
something like that after i click on the link...

OK, here's some really simple code. You'd need to add some security measures to stop people messing about with your server through invalid requests to the script, but heres the basics:

PHP Code:

<?
// Set Path to Datafiles
$fullpath="/home/username/public_html/datafiles/";

// Generate path to file to open. Get filename from content argument
$filename = $fullpath.$_GET['content']'.txt';

// Load file from server
$fp = fopen($filename, "r");
$mainpage = fread($fp, filesize($filename));
fclose($fp);
?>

YOUR HTML CODE FOR PAGE IN HERE

Wherever you want the content to appear
<? echo $mainpage; ?>

YOUR HTML CODE FOR PAGE IN HERE

This code will load an appropriate text file from your server e.g:
Request page: www.yoursite.com/page.php?content=mainpage
it would load
www.yoursite.com/datafiles/mainpage.txt
and insert that text into the appropriate place on your design.

As I said, this is VERY insecure in its current form. You would have to build in checking to ensure users could only read from the datafile directory, and that any server commands were removed from input.

There are more advanced methods using databases (MySQL is good) which allow more flexibility. Have a look at http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/phpmysql/ for more information (and to see one such system in operation).

I've found another way that is really simple as well, not sure about the whole security issue though...

Build your layout. Wherever you want your page content to be, put the following code:

PHP Code:

<?php 
if(!$id){ $id="home";} // This line signifies the default if no other  id is selected
if($id == home) include("news/news.txt"); // The first part says what the id is, and the second part says what to include
if($id == siteinfo) include("info/index.html"); 
if($id == chat) include("chat/index.php");
?>

Get the idea? When making your link table, just make stuff that says to link to "index.php?id=whatever". Hope this helps.

thanks WaHoOoO!, i was wondering if you could help me again, if i click in a link within the table it wont work i was wondering if there is anyway to fix that

Just to mention... You may also do like this:
(for example call this file nav.php)
<?
include ("head.php");
include ("link.php");
...
...
include ("$content.php");
?>

and place a link like that <a href=nav.php?content=chat> or smth like this...

One thing you do not want to do is have a variable passed from the URL decide what page you will go to. It is a high security risk since you can put another path there and run a script that is not even on your site. Alwayse check your varable before processing it.

The switch statment works very well in this situation

PHP Code:

switch ($page)
{
case "Home":
include("index.htm"); 
break;

case "about":
include("about.htm"); 
break;

default:
include("/index.htm);
break;
} 


My syntax may be a bit rusty...it is early

im am interested in the same thing anyone help?

Using frames too!

or use this

PHP Code:

<? if ($page == "") $page = "news";

if (!file_exists($page.".php")) $page = "inc/error";

include($page.".php");

?>

does css not work in php pages? i am trying to make a page using the ? thingy (real tech language) and it has no css so it looks crap basically wonderd why. the page is http://dansgalaxy.co.uk/test/index.php try http://dansgalaxy.co.uk/test/index.php?page=contact as a example its crap page i know anyone help?


(edit 26/06/07: please dont judge me by this.. i know more now...)

Originally Posted by feraira

Using frames too!

or use this

PHP Code:

<? if ($page == "") $page = "news";

if (!file_exists($page.".php")) $page = "inc/error";

include($page.".php");

?>

Frames are not good from an SEO's point of view. I would go with the switch statement above.