HTML Templates -- php?
So, I'm making a site about WWI as a school assignment, and I want this to appear in every document:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>1914</title>
<script src="modernizr-1.5.js"></script>
<link href="styles.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" />
<meta charset="utf-8" />
</head>
<body>
<div id="container">
<header>
<img src="images/banner.png" alt="World War I" style="border: none"/>
<nav>
<ul>
<a href="index.htm"><li><span>Home</span></li></a>
<a href="1914.htm"><li><span>1914</span></li></a>
<a href="1915.htm"><li><span>1915</span></li></a>
<a href="1916.htm"><li><span>1916</span></li></a>
<a href="1917.htm"><li><span>1917</span></li></a>
<a href="1918.htm"><li><span>1918</span></li></a>
</ul>
</nav>
</header>
<section>
<article>
<br style="clear: both" />
</article>
<aside>
</aside>
</section>
<footer style="font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: .1em">
<a href="citations.htm">Citations</a> •
<a href="about.htm">About</a>
</footer>
</div>
</body>
</html>
I think it's kind of stupid to copy-paste all this into each document, and painstakingly go in and change each page separately if I just want to change one word or tag. Is there a way I can put this in template.htm (or something similar) and have php or javascript code take this and insert everything from the requested file inside of the <article> tag? I don't know a lot of php, so this is probably a piece of cake for you gurus, but I would appreciate the help.
Answer
Using php includes:
Save this as top.php
<html>
<head>
<title><?php echo $title; ?></title>
<script src="modernizr-1.5.js"></script>
<link href="styles.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" />
<meta charset="utf-8" />
</head>
<body>
<div id="container">
<header>
<img src="images/banner.png" alt="World War I" style="border: none"/>
<nav>
<ul>
<a href="index.htm"><li><span>Home</span></li></a>
<a href="1914.htm"><li><span>1914</span></li></a>
<a href="1915.htm"><li><span>1915</span></li></a>
<a href="1916.htm"><li><span>1916</span></li></a>
<a href="1917.htm"><li><span>1917</span></li></a>
<a href="1918.htm"><li><span>1918</span></li></a>
</ul>
</nav>
</header>
<section>
Save this as bottom.php
<aside>
</aside>
</section>
<footer style="font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: .1em">
<a href="citations.htm">Citations</a> •
<a href="about.htm">About</a>
</footer>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Then your individual pages would be like this:
<?php $title = '1914'; include("top.php");?>
//This would be where you would make the changes that need to be made on each page.
<article>
<br style="clear: both" />
</article>
<?php include("bottom.php");?>