Simple Template Systems

**Man1c M0g** · 04-25-2005

This is a thread to discuss the Simple Template Systems tutorial. Please keep all posts on-topic, don't spam, and read the entire thread BEFORE you post - any issues you have could be answered deeper within the thread.

05-19-2005

good tutorial, good sercurity (doesnt allow exploiting /index.php?p=www.exploit.com/attack.php type stuff)

ViciOuS · 06-24-2005

PHP Code:


			
<?php

$page = $_GET['p'];

if (($page == "news") or ($page =="")) { include('news.php');

} else if($page == "tutorials") { include('tutorials.php');

} else if($page == "downloads") { include('downloads.php');

} else if($page == "faqs") { include('faqs.php');

} else if($page == "links") { include('links.php');

} else if($page == "legalinfo") { include('legalinfo.php');

} else if($page == "privacy") { include('privacy.php');

} else { include('404error.php');

}

?>

A clump a code like the above isn't all that confusing to the average coder.. But what if you have 20 pages or more.. or maybe you just need a different way to get he same effect.

Well, that's when the Switch construct comes into play. Click the link to read all about the switch construct in the online php manual.

Here is what it would look like if you were to use a switch construct for M0g's tutorial.

PHP Code:


			
<?php

// Think of each case as an if/else statement.

// The default is what will be shown if no other 

// case matches the variable.

//

// Each 'break' at the end of each case (except the default)

// tells php to stop, and continue after the switch.



$page = $_GET['p'];



switch ($page)

{

    // if page is equal to nothing, continue to the news case

    case '':

    case 'news':

        include('news.php');

        break;

    case 'tutorials':

        include('tutorials.php');

        break;

    case 'downloads':

        include('downloads.php');

        break;

    case 'faqs':

        include('faqs.php');

        break;

    case 'links':

        include('links.php');

        break;

    case 'legalinfo':

        include('legalinfo.php');

        break;

    case 'privacy':

        include('privacy.php');

    // If no other case is matched, 

    // display the default 404 error page.

    default:

        include('404error.php');

}

?>

It may seem like a lot of code, but once you get familiar with the switch construct, it is really simple. Also, if you were to take my comments out, it would be half the code

.

You can use this type of code branching for many many different things. Experiment, do some trial and error, study it, and ultimately.. Have Fun!!!

08-04-2005

is there any web sites that have examples around this code that go further?

I have experimented with it, but none have worked (graphics, and title)

09-02-2005

Great usage of the Switch method,
however, I feel that people should be able to expand further, so we can include as many pages as we want .

Save this document as index.php

PHP Code:


			
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head>

<title>Dynamic Content</title>

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />

</head>



<body>

<table width="700"  border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="1" bgcolor="#eaeaea">

  <tr bgcolor="#eaeaea">

    <td height="100" colspan="2">&nbsp;</td>

  </tr>

  <tr align="left" valign="top">

    <td width="175" bgcolor="#f5f5f5"><h4>Navigation</h4>

      <a href="index.php">Home</a><br />

      <a href="index.php?page=contact">Contact</a><br />

      <a href="index.php?page=links">Links</a><br />

      <a href="index.php?page=downloads">Downloads</a><br />

      <br />

      </td>

    <td bgcolor="#ffffff">

    <h2>Welcome to My Site </h2>

    <?php 

$thefile = "includes/$page.php"; 

if (file_exists($thefile)) 

{ 

include("$thefile"); 

} 

else 

{ 

include("includes/start_content.php"); 

} 



?></td>

  </tr>

  <tr align="center" bgcolor="#eaeaea">

    <td height="30" colspan="2">&copy; 2005 Yourname</td>

  </tr>

</table>

</body>

</html>

Create a folder called "includes"

Next, save this as start_content.php in that folder:
(note we can stop people opening the page directly (good 4 security)

PHP Code:


			
<? 

// keep people from accessing this page directly 

if (eregi('start_content.php', $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'])) { 

// go to index page 

    header('Location: ../index.php?page=start_content'); 

    die(); 

} 



?>

<p>Start Content Goes Here!</p>

Save this as contact.php
(This is a fully functioning contact form I have added to help out).
Just edit the content where appropriate.

PHP Code:


			
<? 

// keep people from accessing this page directly 

if (eregi('contact.php', $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'])) { 

// go to index page 

    header('Location: ../main.php?page=contact'); 

    die(); 

} 



?>

<h4>ContactPage</h4>

Blah Blah

I hope this helps someone else out there. Just add more pages, using the headers as shown to prevent people opening the pages without going via the link "index.php?page=whatever"
Now you can see we can add more pages so easily, sinmce we are not stuck to predefined content blocks..!

psychophat · 01-13-2006

72dpi in using your posted script do I need to add links like the previous script of ViciOuS in this topic or do I just add the headers on every page I make? If so how does it detect if the page is invalid and would redirect to the custom error404.php page?

I'm new to PHP so could anyone explain the further usages of the script above.

nassaublu · 01-14-2006

I was trying to follow 72dpi post but got lost with trying to understand where $page.php was defined. Can someone show me what I missed or was it not defined?

Got it

mytruedesire · 12-29-2007

that makes sense now lol.i couldnt really figure that out when i read other peoples tutorials for it.i use wordpress so i dont have to do much coding.i would like to know how to skin wordpress though.