file extension .php or .html?

If I use <? include "file.html"; ?> in the html of my
document, do I _have_ to change the extension of that
document to .php, or would it still work and be valid if I
let it remain .html?


--
Els

Mente humana é como pára-quedas; funciona melhor aberta.

"Els" <els.aNOSPAM (AT) PLEASEtiscali (DOT) nl.invalid> wrote

If I use <? include "file.html"; ?> in the html of my
document, do I _have_ to change the extension of that
document to .php, or would it still work and be valid if I
let it remain .html?

Apples and oranges. The HTML is valid if the HTML is valid. It's not what
file name your PHP script has. PHP is _server side_ and HTML is the
presentation to the browser _after_ all the server side stuff has happened.
There's not even any reason to ever have a file extension on web content at
all (except to make the files more friendly to applications that pay
attention to the file extension--mostly Win32 stuff). In fact, it's common
practice to create CMS-type scripts with no file extension so the web server
can reference the resource through a friendlier directory-like URI.

By adding that one line of PHP code, you have, in fact, created a
fully-functioning PHP script. This file now requires the HTTP host to
filter it through the PHP parser. On many HTTP hosts, you can set it to
only filter *.php files, or you can set it to filter any combination of
files with a given extension. If your page is working on your server and is
being processed by the PHP parser, it's fine to leave it with the .html
extension. If you ever run into a server that does not run all *.html files
through the parser, your page will not operate correctly until you do one of
two things:

1. Change the extension to "php" or...
2. Change the server's configuration. In Apache, this is as simple as
adding an .htaccess file with one line of configuration (asking to pass
*.html files through the parser). Of course, if you're not in control of
the host, this configuration directive may or may not be allowed to be
controlled in your local web directory.

If this is the extent of your PHP code, I would probably just stick to the
"html" extension. If you get really fancy, it might be more appropriate to
label the thing with a "php" extension so someone else can maintain your
site (I know, it probably won't fall into someone else's hands anyway)
without too much headache.

HTH,
Zac

Els wrote:

Zac Hester wrote:
2. Change the server's configuration. In Apache, this is as simple as
adding an .htaccess file with one line of configuration (asking to pass
*.html files through the parser). Of course, if you're not in control of
the host, this configuration directive may or may not be allowed to be
controlled in your local web directory.

If this is the extent of your PHP code, I would probably just stick to
the "html" extension. If you get really fancy, it might be more appropriate to label the thing with a "php" extension so someone else can maintain your
site (I know, it probably won't fall into someone else's hands anyway)
without too much headache.

HTH,

It did. Thanks for this very complete answer, appreciate it :-)

...and now comes the next question ;-)
I now know, that my server doesn't parse html files as php.
Can you tell me what that one line of configuration in an
..htaccess file would have to be? To what do I 'add' an
..htaccess file? To every folder of the website, or only to
the main (first) one? Or can you give me a link to a clear
instruction somewhere? I googled, but all I could find was
someone saying: 'it has been discussed before, so you should
be able to find it in the archives', but I couldn't find
anything...

Thanks,

--
Els

Mente humana é como pára-quedas; funciona melhor aberta.

Els wrote:

Els wrote:

Zac Hester wrote:

2. Change the server's configuration. In Apache, this is as simple as
adding an .htaccess file with one line of configuration (asking to pass
*.html files through the parser). Of course, if you're not in
control of
the host, this configuration directive may or may not be allowed to be
controlled in your local web directory.

If this is the extent of your PHP code, I would probably just stick
to the "html" extension. If you get really fancy, it might be more
appropriate to label the thing with a "php" extension so someone else
can maintain your
site (I know, it probably won't fall into someone else's hands anyway)
without too much headache.

HTH,


It did. Thanks for this very complete answer, appreciate it :-)


..and now comes the next question ;-)
I now know, that my server doesn't parse html files as php.
Can you tell me what that one line of configuration in an .htaccess file
would have to be? To what do I 'add' an .htaccess file? To every folder
of the website, or only to the main (first) one? Or can you give me a
link to a clear instruction somewhere? I googled, but all I could find
was someone saying: 'it has been discussed before, so you should be able
to find it in the archives', but I couldn't find anything...

I did find something: ForceType application/x-httpd-php
I uploaded it, and my .html files are now parsed as .php,
but now my images won't display, because of a parse error.

Anyone know what I should type instead of ForceType
application/x-httpd-php?

Thanks,

--
Els

Mente humana é como pára-quedas; funciona melhor aberta.

Els <els.aNOSPAM (AT) PLEASEtiscali (DOT) nl.invalid>:

Els wrote:

Els wrote:

Zac Hester wrote:

2. Change the server's configuration. In Apache, this is as simple as
adding an .htaccess file with one line of configuration (asking to pass
*.html files through the parser). Of course, if you're not in
control of
the host, this configuration directive may or may not be allowed to be
controlled in your local web directory.

If this is the extent of your PHP code, I would probably just stick
to the "html" extension. If you get really fancy, it might be more
appropriate to label the thing with a "php" extension so someone else
can maintain your
site (I know, it probably won't fall into someone else's hands anyway)
without too much headache.

HTH,


It did. Thanks for this very complete answer, appreciate it :-)


..and now comes the next question ;-)
I now know, that my server doesn't parse html files as php.
Can you tell me what that one line of configuration in an .htaccess file
would have to be? To what do I 'add' an .htaccess file? To every folder
of the website, or only to the main (first) one? Or can you give me a
link to a clear instruction somewhere? I googled, but all I could find
was someone saying: 'it has been discussed before, so you should be able
to find it in the archives', but I couldn't find anything...

I did find something: ForceType application/x-httpd-php
I uploaded it, and my .html files are now parsed as .php,
but now my images won't display, because of a parse error.

Anyone know what I should type instead of ForceType
application/x-httpd-php?

I have to use the *.php extension if I include any php in the source.

..htaccess ? n.i.w.server-side answers, mostly in Dutch :-)
I can't find yr .htaccess solution very quickly :-(


John OO
--

<http://webcel.nl/>
<http://www.webcel.nl/bayshop/shop/bayshop.html>

"Time is what prevents everything from happening at once"
- John Archibald Wheeler -

Owen Jacobson wrote:

Els wrote:

This is all blatantly off-topic.

It _was_.

Would someone else please set an
appropriate followup-to?

There was no follow up, I've redirected the question to
another newsgroup, as you can see in my message of 31-8-2003
23:27 :-)

Can you tell me what that one line of configuration in an .htaccess
file would have to be?

There's a hint in the PHP 'INSTALL' file:

I have not 'installed' PHP on my computer, I'm dealing with
the server where my site is being hosted.

And finally you need to tell Apache which file extension should
trigger PHP. You do this by creating a special mime type and
associating it with an extension. We suggest using:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

Perhaps you might try

AddType application/x-httpd-php .html

I did already (and it works as I wanted it to), thanks to
the answers I got in nl.internet.wwww.server-side and
comp.lang.php :-)

To what do I 'add' an .htaccess file? To every folder of the website,
or only to the main (first) one?

Under apache, .htaccess files affect the directory they are located in
as well as all subdirectories, barring changes in the subdirectory's
own htaccess file.

So I've heard ;-)

Or can you give me a link to a clear instruction somewhere?

The best instructions you're likely to find are in the manual for your
specific web server. .htaccess is generally an apache thing, in which
case you want <http://httpd.apache.org/docs-project/>.

Thanks,

--
Els

Mente humana é como pára-quedas; funciona melhor aberta.