Question

I need some help. I am working on a backend of a website and I want to create functions where I can re-use the same code instead of duplicating it.

So I will have certain “sections” that contain information, such as:

getQuickInfo

function getQuickInfo() {

echo '
<div class="portlet">
        <div class="portlet-header">
            <h4>Quick Info</h4>
        </div>

        <div class="portlet-content">
            <table cellspacing="0" class="info_table">
                <tbody>
                    <tr>
                        <td class="value">'.getCount("total_users").'</td>
                        <td class="full">Total Users</td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                        <td class="value">'.getCount("count_open_requests").'</td>
                        <td class="full">Open Support Requests</td>
                    </tr>
                </tbody>
            </table>
        </div>      
    </div>
';
}

Now I know I am approaching this the wrong way, that’s why I am posting this question. But that is just an example of a Quck Info section I would like to re-use on other pages, so I can sitck it wherever I want and just do getQuickInfo()

For this example, that function works fine. I would like suggestions on a better way to do it, and also for some other sections it won’t be that easy it will have some Mysql queries and grabbing information from a database, which I can’t store that within an echo.

How does everyone else accomplish stuff like this?

My main goal is to be able to output sections wherever I would like:

• getQuickInfo()
• getAdminNotes()
• getSupportRequests()

etc.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Much as I am loathed to mix raw HTML with PHP code in templates, I know others disagree with me and this is one place where it might be a valid use.

So you would create a file that looks like this:

quickinfo.php

<div class="portlet">
    <div class="portlet-header">
        <h4>Quick Info</h4>
    </div>

    <div class="portlet-content">
        <table cellspacing="0" class="info_table">
            <tbody>
                <tr>
                    <td class="value"><?php echo getCount("total_users"); ?></td>
                    <td class="full">Total Users</td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td class="value"><?php echo getCount("count_open_requests"); ?></td>
                    <td class="full">Open Support Requests</td>
                </tr>
            </tbody>
        </table>
    </div>      
</div>

…and in you main page, you can just do:

include('quickinfo.php');

You can easily adapt this to use the result of queries. You would simply perform the query in the main page, and assign the results to a named variable. Then in the template page you use the data in the named variable to generate the page. This means that you can use the same code to generate different results based on different queries – as long as the result are held in the same named variable.