Automatically update links on pages

[Swiftless]

Hi,
On my site I have 22 pages, and on each page I have links to all the others. So when I add, edit or remove a page I have to edit all 22 pages. I was wondering if there was a way to have the links kept in one file on my server, and have the links from that file show up as links on all my pages.

Thankyou

[Fang]

Best way is server-side, see thread

[SuzanneB]

If you enable PHP on your host, it really is extremely simple to do what you are saying.
All you need is an include file with the links defined as constants.
For example, if you want to reference index.htm then think of a name to call it, home say, then create a text file called something like "links.inc" and define home as a constant who's value is index.htm

<?php
define ('home','index.htm');
?>

Just add more lines for more constants.

Then in your html pages you then place the line
<?php include(links.inc) ?>

And in each html file you replace each link with the appropriate constant..

<?php echo home; ?>

[Swiftless]

I have found that I can use Framesets to have a different page that I just show after the main page. How do I make it show up UNDER the main page, but off screen untill I scroll down to where it would be if it were one page...

[Wart_Hog]

Framesets are EVIL!!! very bad business... avoid... avoid... avoid... 666 - mark of the beast - etc... I've dealt with them before, I thought they were "easy to manage". The best way to go is php includes.
-Mike

[Swiftless]

I use them on another of my sites and they are fine, but I guess they cant do this...

I have never, NEVER used php before. I don't get how to use it.

I have done what was previously said, but How do I replace the link?

[Fang]

Check first if your provider supports PHP, if so then start with this tutorial

[Swiftless]

Doesn't work.

[MstrBob]

http://webdevfaqs.com/php.php#include

It's really rather simple. Include all your links in a separate document. Name it whatever you like, links.txt or what-have-you. Now, in your pages, make sure it's got a php extension (.php instead of .html) and where you want the links to be, put this:

<?PHP include('links.txt'); ?>

Simple as pie. If you know how to bake.

[Swiftless]

Ok, I figured out how to do it using the unclude function, given above.

Although this does not do what I want, I still have to manually add links to every page. I want it to just list all the links from the links.inc file, at the bottom of every page.

links.inc looks like this:
<?php
define ('home','<a href="index.htm">Home</a>');
define ('contact','<a href="contact.htm">Contact Us</a>');
?>

and to test it, main.php looks like:
<?php include("http://home.austarnet.com.au/caradonhouse/down.htm") ?>
<?php include("http://swiftless.thefreebizhost.com/Test/hmm/links.inc") ?>
<?php echo home; ?>
<?php echo contact; ?>

but i want it to echo all the files in the links.inc at once, instead of all manually as you can see with:
<?php echo home; ?>
and
<?php echo contact; ?>

[MstrBob]

Why are you doing that? Just put the html into the include file. Thus:

links.inc

<a href="index.htm">Home</a>
<a href="contact.htm">Contact Us</a>
<a href="http://example.com">Other Links</a>

Main.php:

<?PHP include('links.inc');?>

And you're done.

[Swiftless]

Because up above they told me to do that

That works perfectly, thankyou so much.

[Swiftless]

I just found out that the page CANNOT have an extension of .php, as this will stop all search engines and links to the site from working. Is there any way to leave the name of the page as .html?

[Fang]

Try this