Easy title/keyword tags

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supercain

Hi,

im making a php site where every page has a title, its keywords and description. The thing is that i would like to have a separate file, call it tags.php and have all the tags defined there so i can change them anytime without having to edit every single page. I have a vague idea on how to do it but im pretty much stuck.

Lets say i have for the moment 2 pages, index.php and schedule.php (or index.php?s=schedule) so i want to define the following tags for each one of them. The first being title, the second the keywords and the 3rd the description.


$index= array("title"=>"Clinic Name", "keywords"=>"clinic,  medical", "desc"=>"A good clinic for you");

$schedule= array("title"=>"Consultation", "keywords"=>"hours, time", "desc"=>"some description");

whereas the html code would look like this

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
 <head>
  <title>$page[$title]</title>
  <meta charset=utf-8>
  <meta name="description" content="$description">
  <meta name="keywords" content="$keywords">

the template is the same for all pages so the idea is to have dynamically replaced the tags with the ones corresponding to that page. $page is the name of the page which i automatically get with $page = $_GET['s'];

So this is the basic idea but i really dont know pretty much where to start. Any ideas please?

Thank you!

supercain

No answer? okay, i figured out this so far:

$tags = array("index" => array("title" => "Clinic Name", "keywords" => "clinic,  medical", "desc" => "A good clinic for you"), "schedule" => array("title" => "Consultation", "keywords" => "hours, time", "desc" => "some description"));

 $page = $_GET['s'];

and in the html

$tags[$page][title]

it works, but i just feel like it could be done in a much practical way. Otherwise i have to use the words "title", "keywords" and "desc" so many times in the code which is redundant. I would like to compact it into something like this:

$index = array("Clinic Name",  "clinic,  medical", "A good clinic for you");

$schedule = array("Consultation", "hours, time", "some description");

so i dont have to repeat the same words. Anybody got any ideas?

Thank you.

NogDog

I might do something like this (or I might not ):

<?php
/**
 * Get HTML text for title element plus keywords and description meta tags
 * @return string
 * @param string $pageName Top-level key in $data array
 */
function getHtmlHead($pageName="default")
{
   $data = array(
      "default" => array(
         "title" => "Default Title",
         "keywords" => array(
            "word1",
            "word2"
         ),
         "description" => "This is a sample description."
      ),
      "index" => array(
         "title" => "Home",
         "keywords" => array(
            "foo",
            "bar"
         ),
         "description" => "Welcome to the home page."
      ),
      "schedule" => array(
         "title" => "Schedule",
         "keywords" => array(
            "Larry",
            "Moe",
            "Curly"
         ),
         "description" => "This is the schedule page."
      )
   );
   if( ! array_key_exists($pageName, $data)) {
      $pageName = "default";
      error_log("Invalid pageName '$pageName' in ".__FUNCTION__."()");
   }
   $template = <<<EOD
<html>
<head>
<title>%s</title>
<meta name='keywords' content='%s' />
<meta name='description' content='%s' />
</head>
<body>

EOD;

   return sprintf(
      $template,
      htmlspecialchars($data[$pageName]['title']),
      htmlspecialcahrs(implode(', ', $data[$pageName]['keywords'])),
      htmlspecialchars($data[$pageName]['description'])
   );
}

Usage:

<?php
require_once 'path/to/the/above/file.php';
echo getMetaTags('schedule');
?>
<div>Main content here...</div>

supercain

Thanks. But then, there is no way to abbreviate and avoid the repeated usage of the words "title", "keywords" and "description" like the example i gave in my second post? i believe we can get a much shorter code and that would be more likeable.

criterion9

supercain;1185996 wrote:
No answer? okay, i figured out this so far:
$tags = array("index" => array("title" => "Clinic Name", "keywords" => "clinic,  medical", "desc" => "A good clinic for you"), "schedule" => array("title" => "Consultation", "keywords" => "hours, time", "desc" => "some description"));

 $page = $_GET['s'];
and in the html
$tags[$page][title]
it works, but i just feel like it could be done in a much practical way. Otherwise i have to use the words "title", "keywords" and "desc" so many times in the code which is redundant. I would like to compact it into something like this:
$index = array("Clinic Name",  "clinic,  medical", "A good clinic for you");

$schedule = array("Consultation", "hours, time", "some description");
so i dont have to repeat the same words. Anybody got any ideas?

Thank you.

While it may not be practical for this project...this is a good candidate for storing the information in a database. Then you can remove all the array building code and put in a quick SQL statement for the page you are on.

NogDog

I guess I didn't see that part about repeating words, but generally speaking I tend to err on the side of verbosity in my source code, as that makes it much easier to maintain. A little copy-and-pasting can make it easy to duplicate as needed.

If you don't want to go with a DB solution (a perfectly valid suggestion, mind you), you could look into setting up a parse_ini_file() solution, perhaps, where the ini file might be something like:

[index]
title = "index"
description = "This is the home page"
keywords[] = "keyword 1"
keywords[] = "keyword 2"

[schedule]
title = "Schedule Page"
description = "This is the scheduling page"
keywords[] = "foo"
keywords[] = "bar"

PS: Another popular option these days would be to set up a JSON file and use json_decode() to populate an array.

supercain

Thanks. I didnt know about that. Sounds interesting but seems like you have to repeat again the words "title", "keywords" and "description" for each array just like in the other codes, which is i would like to avoid just for the sake of having a much shorter code.

I cant help to think that something in this format wuld look great:

$index = array("Clinic Name",  "clinic,  medical", "A good clinic for you");

$schedule = array("Consultation", "hours, time", "some description");

but i fail to figure out how to have the code understand that the first value of the array is for title, the second for keywords and the 3rd for description without having to write those every time.

criterion9

supercain;1186143 wrote:
Thanks. I didnt know about that. Sounds interesting but seems like you have to repeat again the words "title", "keywords" and "description" for each array just like in the other codes, which is i would like to avoid just for the sake of having a much shorter code.

I cant help to think that something in this format wuld look great:
$index = array("Clinic Name",  "clinic,  medical", "A good clinic for you");

$schedule = array("Consultation", "hours, time", "some description"); 
but i fail to figure out how to have the code understand that the first value of the array is for title, the second for keywords and the 3rd for description without having to write those every time.

If you stored them in a database you'd have something like:

$title = "";//get this however you like...
//connect to db
//select database
$sql = "SELECT title, keyword, description FROM table_name LEFT JOIN tag_table on table_name.foreign_key = tag_table.foreign_key WHERE title='$title'"; //don't forget to sanitize if you are using GET or POST
$result = mysql_query($sql);
if(!$result) die mysql_error();
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
//this is where you do whatever with your tags for the specified title
}

NogDog

supercain;1186143 wrote:
Thanks. I didnt know about that. Sounds interesting but seems like you have to repeat again the words "title", "keywords" and "description" for each array just like in the other codes, which is i would like to avoid just for the sake of having a much shorter code.

I cant help to think that something in this format wuld look great:
$index = array("Clinic Name",  "clinic,  medical", "A good clinic for you");

$schedule = array("Consultation", "hours, time", "some description"); 
but i fail to figure out how to have the code understand that the first value of the array is for title, the second for keywords and the 3rd for description without having to write those every time.

At the risk of repeating myself, doing something simply to make the code shorter is seldom much of a reason for doing so. But, if you feel it is important, then you would just have to know that, for example, $array[0] is one type of thing, $array[1] another, and so forth. That then means you have to be careful about staying 100% consistent with your ordering, never leaving out an element, and you probably should add a fairly verbose comment to your code explaining what you're doing -- which makes simply using the more verbose code in the first place seem, perhaps, less verbose?

supercain

Thanks again. The usage of a database seems like a good a idea but the site doesnt have one so unfortunately i cant use that option.

One question for Nogdog, according to your example can we say that $index [0] equals Clinic Name while $schedule[0] = Consultation and so on? if so, then i may have figured out a way.

NogDog

supercain;1186499 wrote:
...One question for Nogdog, according to your example can we say that $index [0] equals Clinic Name while $schedule[0] = Consultation and so on?...

Yes, as long as you are totally consistent on how you define each such enumerated array.

bionoid

Just my 2c, but you could also define constants to give your array members a better description:

<?php

/* DEFINITION */

define('title', 0);
define('keywords', 1);
define('desc', 2);
$tags = array(
	'index'    => array('Clinic Name', 'clinic, medical', 'A good clinic for you'),
	'schedule' => array('Consultation', 'hours, time', 'some description')
);

/* USAGE */

echo $tags['index'][title] . '<br />';
echo $tags['index'][keywords] . '<br />';
echo $tags['index'][desc] . '<br />';

?>

Then at least if the order changes or you add more fields, you can simply reindex the constant values.

or as a different option, have a function build your array for you -

<?php

/* DEFINITION */

function createTags($data) {$tags = array(); foreach ($data as $key => $value) {$tags[$key] = array('title' => $value[0], 'keywords' => $value[1], 'desc' => $value[2]);} return $tags;}
$tags = createTags(array(
	'index'    => array('Clinic Name', 'clinic, medical', 'A good clinic for you'),
	'schedule' => array('Consultation', 'hours, time', 'some description')
));

/* USAGE */

echo $tags['index']['title'] . '<br />';
echo $tags['index']['keywords'] . '<br />';
echo $tags['index']['desc'] . '<br />';

?>

LaffinToo

<?php
$pages=array(
  'headers'=>array('title','keywords','desc'),
  'index'=>array('Clinic Name','clinic, medical','A Good Clinic for you.'),
  'schedule'=>array('Consulation','hours, time','Hours of operation')
);

$page=NULL;

function SelectPage($name=NULL)
{
  global $pages,$page;
  $page=NULL;
  if(isset($pages[$name]))
  {
    foreach($pages['headers'] as $idx=>$val)
      $page[$val]=$pages[$name][$idx];
  }
}


SelectPage('index');
$sample=<<<EOF
<h1>{$page['title']}</h1><br />
<em>keywords: </em>{$page['keywords']}<br />
<em>desc: </em>{$page['desc']}<br />
EOF;
echo $sample;
SelectPage('schedule');
$sample=<<<EOF
<h1>{$page['title']}</h1><br />
<em>keywords: </em>{$page['keywords']}<br />
<em>desc: </em>{$page['desc']}<br />
EOF;
echo $sample;

There ya Goes

supercain

Great! now i finally have what i was looking for. Thank you all for your suggestions and support.

Dasher

A website I designed with CMS, was all database driven. Pages could be customized by pulling page specific title, description, keywords from the database as well as the content.

chrisguk

NogDog;1186004 wrote:
I might do something like this (or I might not ):
<?php
/**
 * Get HTML text for title element plus keywords and description meta tags
 * @return string
 * @param string $pageName Top-level key in $data array
 */
function getHtmlHead($pageName="default")
{
   $data = array(
      "default" => array(
         "title" => "Default Title",
         "keywords" => array(
            "word1",
            "word2"
         ),
         "description" => "This is a sample description."
      ),
      "index" => array(
         "title" => "Home",
         "keywords" => array(
            "foo",
            "bar"
         ),
         "description" => "Welcome to the home page."
      ),
      "schedule" => array(
         "title" => "Schedule",
         "keywords" => array(
            "Larry",
            "Moe",
            "Curly"
         ),
         "description" => "This is the schedule page."
      )
   );
   if( ! array_key_exists($pageName, $data)) {
      $pageName = "default";
      error_log("Invalid pageName '$pageName' in ".__FUNCTION__."()");
   }
   $template = <<<EOD
<html>
<head>
<title>%s</title>
<meta name='keywords' content='%s' />
<meta name='description' content='%s' />
</head>
<body>

EOD;

   return sprintf(
      $template,
      htmlspecialchars($data[$pageName]['title']),
      htmlspecialcahrs(implode(', ', $data[$pageName]['keywords'])),
      htmlspecialchars($data[$pageName]['description'])
   );
}
Usage:
<?php
require_once 'path/to/the/above/file.php';
echo getMetaTags('schedule');
?>
<div>Main content here...</div>

Hi NogDog,

A belated question/reply to this thread but I wanted to ask you something about the solution you provided.

Basically I am using what some people describe as an ungly case/switch method within my index.php gile to switch the title tags etc etc.

Your method looks nice and I wondered if there are any performance implications using a nested array?

LaffinToo

I think you will find the performance neglible.
a switch/case & if/else will create code like

    move AX,VariableA
    compare AX, ConstantA
    jumpnotequal Compare2
    move ax, Data1
    jump done
Compare2:
    compare AX, ConstantB
    jumpnotequal, Compare3
    move ax, Data2
    jump done
...
...

while an array system will reuse the comparison routine

   move AX, VariableA
   MOV DX, ArrayConstant
   move IX, 0
Compare1:
   Compare [DX+IX], AX
   jumpequal done
   Increment IX
   jump Compare1
done:
.
.
.

Although the use of the array shortens the amount of code produced, it does have the slight overhead of the math to calculate the position of the next element. The code snippets are pseudo code, and very simplified, but it's just to give an idea of what is produced by the interpreter/compiler.

For myself, I prefer using an array system. Because it keeps code more compact. When you been around for awhile and see if/else...switch/case statements hitting 30-50 blocks. and trying to fix/update the code becomes a chore.

My rule of thumb is never to use more than 3-5 if/else...switch/case statements. At this point consider using an array system.

New coders often find using arrays difficult so postpone learning them.

Anyways good luck on yer coding

NogDog

Another good rule of thumb is to code for maintainability first, and worry about performance only if and when you find that you have to. (More often than not, your main performance bottlenecks will be the database, not your PHP code -- unless it's really, really awful ). That's not to say you shouldn't think about code efficiency at all, but I'd rather worry about saving hours of debugging versus microseconds of performance.

jdavid

To all,
Great work. You all have given very valuable information
Thank You