Creating a PHP header/footer
I'm designing a relatively simple site for a friend. I would like to impliment php so that he can change his header/footer without having to go back through every file. Problem is, I'm pretty much totally unfamiliar with how php works. Is there a simplistic way to do this? I've seen a few answers for how to make a php header but they all seem different and I haven't had much success. I'm not saying they don't work (I probably did it wrong) but the simpler in this case, the better.
Thanks!
Answer
Besides just using include() or include_once() to include the header and footer, one thing I have found useful is being able to have a custom page title or custom head tags to be included for each page, yet still have the header in a partial include. I usually accomplish this as follows:
In the site pages:
<?php
$PageTitle="New Page Title";
function customPageHeader(){?>
<!--Arbitrary HTML Tags-->
<?php }
include_once('header.php');
//body contents go here
include_once('footer.php');
?>
And, in the header.php file:
<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title><?= isset($PageTitle) ? $PageTitle : "Default Title"?></title>
<!-- Additional tags here -->
<?php if (function_exists('customPageHeader')){
customPageHeader();
}?>
</head>
<body>
Maybe a bit beyond the scope of your original question, but it is useful to allow a bit more flexibility with the include.