PHP Includes and directives in HTML page seem to have an HTML comment wrapper...

B

Brian D

New member
...around them. ? Seems that certain directives in php are in the form <!-- xxxxx -->, (server side includes???) instead of <?php xxxx ?> why is this? What is the difference? I am guessing then that the parser doesen't just see the <!-- and ignore everything untill it gets to --> but does in fact read the stuff inside. Here is some examples of a part of an actual html page that has some of these <!-- xxx --> in them:

-------------------------------------------
<!-- INCLUDE overall_header.html -->

<!-- IF S_DISPLAY_SEARCH -->
<p class="searchbar">
<!-- IF S_USER_LOGGED_IN -->
<span style="float: {S_CONTENT_FLOW_END};"><a href="{U_SEARCH_NEW}">{L_SEARCH_NEW}</a> | <a href="{U_SEARCH_SELF}">{L_SEARCH_SELF}</a></span>
<!-- ENDIF -->
<span><a href="{U_SEARCH_UNANSWERED}">{L_SEARCH_UNANSWERED}</a> | <a href="{U_SEARCH_ACTIVE_TOPICS}">{L_SEARCH_ACTIVE_TOPICS}</a></span>
</p>
<!-- ENDIF -->
<br clear="all" />

<!-- INCLUDE forumlist_body.html -->

<br clear="all" />
----------------------------------------------

So I guess that <!-- INCLUDE overall_header.html --> includes the overall_header.html page, but again why not something such as <?php include("overall_header.html "); ?> what is the difference? Also, it looks like the IF statements are included in this such as <!-- IF S_DISPLAY_SEARCH --> Why not in the other form of <?php ?? How should I know when to use the different forms?

Thanks,

Brian
 
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