Question

I am editing some code that I’ve inherited from elsewhere and there seems to be a problem with the script tags in this section of the code. If I remove them the page runs but obviously the javascript does not run.

I’m not too good with php so I’m not sure how to fix this.

$GLOBALS['TEMPLATE']['extra_head'] = <<<ENDHTML
<script src='js/ajax.js' type='text/javascript'></script>
<script src='js/blog.js' type='text/javascript'></script>
ENDHTML;

Answer 1

Just a guess, but if there are any characters (including spaces or tabs) on the same line before or after the closing delimiter of the HEREDOC, you will get errors.

From the manual:

Warning

It is very important to note that the line with the closing identifier must contain no other characters, except possibly a semicolon (;). That means especially that the identifier may not be indented, and there may not be any spaces or tabs before or after the semicolon. It’s also important to realize that the first character before the closing identifier must be a newline as defined by the local operating system. This is \n on UNIX systems, including Mac OS X. The closing delimiter (possibly followed by a semicolon) must also be followed by a newline.

If this rule is broken and the closing identifier is not "clean", it will not be considered a closing identifier, and PHP will continue looking for one. If a proper closing identifier is not found before the end of the current file, a parse error will result at the last line.

What you eluded to (blank screen and broken syntax highlighting in your text editor) would be the result or symptom of a parse error if error reporting is off. It’s hard to see if this is the case in your post, being outside the context of the actual file.

Check that out and see if it is applicable.

Aside: It’s a good habit to turn on error_reporting(E_ALL) while in development.