Re: variable placeholders in a text file

Bastien Koert On 2012-12-31, at 4:58 PM, tamouse mailing lists <tamouse.lists@gmail.com> wrote: > On Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 2:37 PM, Nelson Green <nelsongreen84@hotmail.com> wrote: >> >> On Mon, 31 Dec 2012 14:47:20 Stephen D wrote: >>> >>> Yes! >>> >>> Easy standard stuff. >>> >>> $title = 'Mr."; >>> $user_name = 'John Doe'; >>> >>> $message = "Hello $title $user_name ...." >>> >>> Just define the value for the variables before defining the value for >>> the message. >>> >>> Note that $message has to use double quotes for the expansion. Also >>> consider using HEREDOC instead of the double quotes. >>> >>> You may want to put your message in a text file and using the include >>> function. >> >> Hi Stephen, >> >> My message is in a text file, but I'm using fopen and fread in a self-defined >> function, so message is actually defined as (GREETER_FILE is a defined >> constant): >> function print_greeting($user_name) >> { >> $handle = fopen(GREETER_FILE, "r"); >> $message = fread($file_handle, filesize(GREETER_FILE)); >> $msg_text = str_replace("USER", $user_name, $message); >> >> print($msg_txt); >> } >> >> And my text file is simply: >> $cat greet.txt >> Hello USER. How are you today? >> >> If I change USER to $user_name in the text file and change the print function >> parameter to $message, $user_name gets printed verbatim. In other words >> the greeting on my page becomes: >> Hello $user_name. How are you today? >> >> I want to pass the name Nelson to the function, and have it output: >> Hello Nelson. How are you today? >> >> after the function reads in text file input that contains a variable placeholder >> for the user name. I actually had a HEREDOC in the function, and that worked. >> But by reading a file instead, I can make things more flexible. I'd rather be >> changing a text file instead of a code file. > > I use the include("template") method for this alla time, it works > great. Most especially for HTML emails coming from a web site to a > group of users, just slick as anything. include does basically just > what your print_greeting function does less the actual printout, but > using php variables instead of a str_replace. Also, this way the > templates can be stored elsewhere, outside the actual code base if > need be. > This is exactly what I do. Dead simple fast and the templates are fully self contained.