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Build a Basic PHP Website

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Using PHP Code on Our Site

3:09 with Alena Holligan

In this video, we’ll convert the home page HTML file into a PHP file and start adding some PHP code.

Update to html

index.php unordered list for our random items should have a class of "items".

<ul class="items">

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    Welcome back. 0:00
    We're ready to start building our media library. 0:01
    We're going to start by setting up a separate file for 0:04
    the header that we can include in all the pages of our library. 0:06
    This will make our site easier to maintain 0:10
    by giving us one place to update shared elements, 0:13
    like navigation links, instead of needing to update each page individually. 0:16
    Go ahead and launch the workspace that is on this page or 0:20
    download the project files to work locally. 0:23
    Most web servers, including the one in Workspaces, are configured to display 0:26
    a file named index.html or index.php as the main file by default. 0:30
    If you click the preview icon, a new window opens. 0:37
    In the index.html file is displayed. 0:40
    Go back to your workspace and open index.html. 0:44
    You can see that the file references an external style sheet here, 0:46
    and down on the content, we're referencing some external images for the suggestions. 0:51
    This page also has a number of links. 0:58
    Both here in the suggestions. 1:02
    And up here in the navigation. 1:06
    We haven't built these pages yet, but we will. 1:08
    Instead of actual links, you'll see hash signs as placeholders for now, 1:11
    and we'll update those links as we build out the pages. 1:14
    Before we start adding those new pages, 1:18
    let's explore how PHP files work on a server. 1:20
    Let's start by changing the title tag in the copyright date to use PHP. 1:23
    We'll start with a simple echo command. 1:26
    And we'll echo out the title as a string. 1:29
    This isn't actually very useful. 1:38
    But we'll be extending this in a later video to use a variable instead of 1:40
    a string. 1:44
    Using a variable for the title will allow us to use the same HTML on all the pages, 1:44
    but still have individual titles for each page. 1:49
    Now let's go to the footer and echo out the year. 1:53
    We'll use the built in function date with y for our year. 1:59
    Let's save this page and go back to the browser. 2:06
    When I refresh this page, 2:09
    we'll see something that you might not have expected to see. 2:11
    The PHP code here in the title tag, and nothing here for the date. 2:14
    Our Web server did not execute the PHP code in this file. 2:19
    Why not? 2:23
    Because our file has an extension of .html. 2:24
    Our server will only execute the PHP code in a PHP file. 2:28
    If that file has an extension, it identifies as PHP. 2:32
    This extension is usually .php. 2:36
    Let's go back to our workspaces and rename the index file. 2:38
    We'll rename this from index.html to index.php. 2:43
    Now when we preview this file in the browser, the Web server recognizes 2:51
    the extension, executes the PHP code and displays the title and the year correctly. 2:55
    So now we have the home page working as a PHP file. 3:01
    It's processing a little bit of code to handle the title and the header, 3:04
    and the date and the footer. 3:07

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