I absolutely don't post a question here in SO unless I really can't find a way to solve my problem myself. I did a lot of googling and was not able to find a solution for this one problem I am about to describe.
Here is the problem. I am creating a templated php website. With templated I mean something like below:
<?php include("header.php");?>
<div id="content">
<div id="main">
<h2><?php echo($page_title);?></h2>
<?php
echo ($page_content);
?>
</div>
<?php include("sidebar.php");?>
</div>
<?php include("footer.php");?>
As you can see here page template ECHOES the content of the $page_content variable between header and footer sections to build the page. To keep the code clean and separated (in my own way) I have been placing the html content in .txt files (let's say page1_content.txt) and assigning the txt content to this variable ($page_content) as below:
$page_content = file_get_contents("page1_content.txt");
My problem starts when I place some php code in page1_content.txt, lets' call this file page2_content.php (yes, I change the file from .txt to .php). Then I assign the content of this file to $page_content variable as below as usual:
$page_content = file_get_contents("page2_content.php");
Now, when the page template ECHOES page2_content.php contents the php code in it is also echoed as string and not executed, but I am trying to query a database and do some stuff in this file with some php code. I mean, I want the php code inside page2_content.php to be executed and the cumulative html code to be echoed by the "echo" line inside the template file.
How can I achieve this? Please ask me any questions if you need more info/clarification.
Thanks
EDİT: As many people here suggested the solution was including the file. Actually, I tried including the file before but it didn't look like it was working, it broke my template, so I though I was on the wrong track and quit the "include" way of doing this. Since everybody here is advising to use include I tried that again. I replaced the php code in "page2_content.php" with a basic 1-line code just to see if it gets executed before adding generated html code without breaking the template and it worked. Apparently my php code had a problem at first place and hence broke my template execution.
Now I have changed the template structure slightly and pages using the template, and it seems to work nicely. Thanks a lot everybody. I have up-voted every answer suggesting that I use include :)
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