executing php file from inside another php file

Junior WebHelper Joined: 28 Apr 2002 Posts: 2

Hi all,

I have a php file that generates a table that I would like to save into a variable inside another php file. How would I do this? the include function seems to just execute the file and output it so I can't seem to save the output to a variable. I thought that maybe exec or passthru might work, but they don't.

Any ideas? The reason I need to be able to save the output to a variable is that my system uses a templating system and I need to save to a variable that the template can access.

I'm pretty sure there is a command in php for doing this, but could not find anything in the manual or through searching.

thanks.

Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2002 5:02 pm (21 years, 11 months ago)

I'm not sure about this, but i think you just should save the output in a variable in the "other" script (the script that's generating the table). Remember not to print the output in the table-generating-script, cuz then it would be saved to a variable AND it'll be printed.

hope this works out. Confused

Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2002 5:59 pm (21 years, 11 months ago)

You could make your table creator into a function, then it would only out put when you called it. Smile

edit: I just reread the question this probably isn't relevant Embarassed

Code:

<?
//file1.php

function create_table() {

?>

<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
<tr>
<td>Cell 1</td>
<td>Cell 2</td>
</tr>
</table>

<?

}

?>

Code:

<?
//file2.php

include("file1.php");

?>

<html>
<head>
<title></title>
</head>
<body>

<?

create_table();

?>

</body>
</html>

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

Is this what you want? Question

Code:

include.php:

$variable="blabla";

index.php:

include ("include.php");

echo $variable;

Junior WebHelper Joined: 28 Apr 2002 Posts: 2

I had a php file (two.php) that generated a table and echoed html output. I needed to store this html output in a variable for a template system. Problem with calling include(two.php) inside one.php was that it started generating html start page stuff and echoed the output into the html instead of the variable. I was looking for an easy way to save the output, but was unsuccessful. I really needed to do this right away, so after I posted the message I hacked a quick, but dirty solution which is essentially what Robert mentioned. Inside two.php now I store the html into a variable $table_html instead of echoing it. Inside one.php I include two.php and then use the variable $table_html. Hopefully they will include a function for this in the future since I had to go in the file and change all the echos. Another way that might work is to use output buffering and save the buffer into a variable, but I did not try this as I was unsure of how it would affect the output buffering already in use in one.php and the file was short enough that I only had to spend a few minutes fixing it.

It looks like others have need for this also. I was browsing around and interestingly found a page that faces the problem of including a file that echos html output inside another. You can see the problems at this site. http://www.marksportal.net/dev/cal_demo/

Thanks for all who replied.

Posted: Wed May 01, 2002 7:06 pm (21 years, 11 months ago)

I am sure this will work:

Code:

<?php
// get a web page into an array and print it out
$fcontents = file ('http://idya.resource-locator.com/');
while (list ($line_num, $line) = each ($fcontents)) {
echo "<b>Line $line_num:</b> " . htmlspecialchars ($line) . "<br>\n";
}
// get a web page into a string
$fcontents = join ('', file ('http://idya.resource-locator.com/'));
?>

Good Luck!