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I have a menu that appears on all my pages. It contains php for passing filenames to url's as follows. Here is a snippet...

document.write('<li><a href="somefile.php?folder=<?php echo "_abc"; ?>">abc</a></li>');
document.write('<li><a href="somefile.php?folder=<?php echo "_def"; ?>">def</a></li>');
document.write('<li><a href="somefile.php?folder=<?php echo "_ghi"; ?>">ghi</a></li>');

It includes css and that works fine. I have saved the menu as a seperate .js file and used...

<script src="js/menucss.js"></script>

...to load it from each page that I want it to appear. The menu displays and the css works fine - however the php does not parse and the page shows the php markup. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance. Neil

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I don't understand the problem. – Madara Uchiha♦ Sep 1 '12 at 6:41
up vote 1 down vote accepted

You shouldn't do it like that.

Have a page called menu.php saved somewhere, which includes:

<ul>

    <li><a href="somefile.php?folder=<?php echo "_abc"; ?>">abc</a></li>
    <li><a href="somefile.php?folder=<?php echo "_def"; ?>">def</a></li>
    <li><a href="somefile.php?folder=<?php echo "_ghi"; ?>">ghi</a></li>

</ul>

Then include it, on the server side (index.php):

<html>
<head>
    <title></title>
</head>
<body>
<header>
    <?php include("main.php"); ?>
</header>
</body>
</html>

This approach is far superior:

  • It does not require an extra request to get the data.
  • There will be no flickering or awkward moments of data loading, the menu would appear as if you've coded it directly into the page.
  • It's much faster.
  • It doesn't use JavaScript, which the client can choose to disable.
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Spot on. Works 100%. Thanks! – cardshark Sep 1 '12 at 7:03
    
Actually I have noticed that it is throwing in a couple of document.write("") when viewing. Everything else works fine. Strange thing is I have removed all instances of them? I have commented out EVERYTHING (sorry for caps!) that is not required - only leaving the include statement and they still appear. Any ideas? – cardshark Sep 1 '12 at 7:19
    
I don't understand the problem. When you include a file in PHP, you're almost doing something close to "copy/paste the code from the included file, into this file", so it's as if you wrote the menu in the main page. – Madara Uchiha♦ Sep 1 '12 at 7:21
    
Scrap that last comment. Just noticed one left in. Thanks anyway. Working spot on now - fast too! – cardshark Sep 1 '12 at 7:23
up vote 0 down vote

You confuse server side and client side. PHP is about server side and PHP code it is interpreted on server. JavaScript is about client side, and JavaScript runs when user already has gotten html page, so when you dinamically add php in html on client side by JavaScript it cannot be run.

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OK, but previously I had the menu coded on each page and the php worked fine. By moving the menu to a seperate file to save editing it on each page every time I make a change I have managed to break it. Is that right. – cardshark Sep 1 '12 at 6:48
    
got it - my bad! – cardshark Sep 1 '12 at 6:53
    
I understand it now. Just learning php - thought I sussed it out. Throwing script into the bag as well threw me off again lol! – cardshark Sep 1 '12 at 7:05
up vote 0 down vote

From what I understood I think that you are Trying to run PHP inside a .js file.
You should include that code in a PHP file.

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up vote 0 down vote

The problem you're experiencing is probably due to the fact that you're attempting to run PHP on a .js file, and your server is not configured to it.

Change the file's extension to .php and use:

<script src="js/menucss.php">
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