Question

I want to know if I can include php scripts in javascript[1] the same way it can be done in html[2]

server.php:
<?php
    echo 'hello World';
?>

client.js (or client.php if necessary):

function foo() {
    var i = <?php include('server.php'); ?>
    console.log( i );
}

If it can be done, and if client.php must be used instead, I would really appreciate a minimal example with index.html/index.php as well, since I would like to see how I would include client now that it is a php file and not javascript

Answer 1

You can use output buffering to achieve something similar, although it’s not possible to directly embed PHP code in JS.

Example:

server.php

<?php
    echo 'hello World';
?>

client.php – (.php extension enables the ability to parse PHP tags, but really outputs JS)

<?php
header("Content-type: application/x-javascript"); // Or 'text/javascript'
ob_start();
include( 'server.php');
$i = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
?>
function foo() {
    var i = '<?= json_encode( $i); ?>';
    console.log( i );
}

Edit:
If the server.php file will only return a simple string, then you can modify your code for client.php. Notice how I said “return” instead of output – If your server.php outputs anything, it will be sent to the browser as output (not what you want). Alternatively, you can set a variable in server.php which gets outputted in client.php, or encapsulate your code in a function:

server.php

<?php
function js_output()
{
    return 'hello world';
}
?>

client.php

<?php
header("Content-type: application/x-javascript"); // Or 'text/javascript'
?>
function foo() {
    var i = '<?php include( 'server.php'); echo addslashes( js_output()); ?>';
    console.log( i );
}

Note: You may also want to add a call to html_entities or htmlspecialchars.