Newbie trying to figure out PHP

Question

I am just trying to make a simple PHP program that allows me to generate my page quickly.

I am completely new at PHP.. And I have no clue what I am doing.

/index.php

<?php
  include "/base/startup.php";
  echo "Test";
  startPage("Home");
 ?>

I'm getting a 500 server error with this.. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong. Thank you.

/base/startup.php

$HOME = "/";
$SCRIPT = <<<EOD

EOD;

$IMPORTS = array(
  "/scripts/script.js"
);

$STYLES = array(
  "/styles/style.css"
);

function prnt($string) {
  echo $string;
}

function map($func, $arr) {
  foreach($arr as $i) {
    call_user_func($func, $i);
  }
}

function linkScript($script) {
  prnt("<script src='$script'></script>");
}

function linkStyle($style)  {
  prnt("<link rel='stylesheet' href='$style'/>");
}

function startPage($title, $script="", $imports=array(), $styles=array()) {
  $pre_tags = array(
    "<html>",
    "<head>"
  );
  $post_tags = array(
    "</head>",
    "<body>"
  );
  map(prnt, $pre_tags);
  prnt("<title>$title</title>");
  map(linkScript, $IMPORTS);
  map(linkScript, $imports);
  map(linkStyle, $STYLES);
  map(linkStyle, $styles);
  map(prnt, $post_tags);
}

function genNav() {
  $nav_links = array(
    "Home"=>$HOME,
    "Walkthroughs"=>$HOME . "/walkthroughs/",
    "Dex"=>$HOME . "dex.php"
  );
  prnt("<div class='nav'>");
  foreach ($nav_links as $key => $value) {
    prnt("<a class='link' href='" . $value . "'/>" . $key . "</a>");
  }
}

function endPage() {
  $endTags = array(
    "</body>",
    "</html>"
  );
}

 ?>

This is the error:

Warning: include(/base/startup.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/html/index.php on line 2

Warning: include(): Failed opening '/base/startup.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/php') in /var/www/html/index.php on line 2
Test
Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function startPage() in /var/www/html/index.php:4 Stack trace: #0 {main} thrown in /var/www/html/index.php on line 4

I don't find any syntax errors with your code. So it should be some runtime error. Please enable `display_errors` by adding `ini_set("display_errors", 1)` on top of your code. — Praveen Kumar Purushothaman, Jun 03 '16 at 23:32
Also see this answer for understanding how to enable errors: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5438060/showing-all-errors-and-warnings And please tell us what's the error you are getting. — Praveen Kumar Purushothaman, Jun 03 '16 at 23:32
Try removing the `/` in the `include`. Change it to: `include "base/startup.php";` — Praveen Kumar Purushothaman, Jun 03 '16 at 23:34
@script8man try `/etc/php.ini` or `/etc/php/php.ini`. If you still can't find it: Create an otherwise empty php file (for example named `info.php`) and just write ` — ccKep, Jun 03 '16 at 23:34
It's probably what @PraveenKumar said. You're trying to include the wrong file (there is probably no `/base` on your system?). — ccKep, Jun 03 '16 at 23:36

Praveen Kumar Purushothaman · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-04T00:05:01.543

3

Since you mentioned you are on a Linux machine, it looks like the issue is caused because of the / here. The / is considered the root directory of linux machine. So removing the / must most probably work:

<?php
  include "base/startup.php";  // Try removing the slash.
  echo "Test";
  startPage("Home");
?>

Since you haven't enabled the display of errors, the issue would be, there's no /base in your system and it would have thrown an error, like Fatal: Include file not found., which is not displayed because of your configuration, instead it would have shown Error 500 silently.

Update

Along with the above error, after seeing your code, the next one is you need to quote the function names. So replace the stuff with:

map("prnt", $pre_tags);
prnt("<title>$title</title>");
map("linkScript", $IMPORTS);
map("linkScript", $imports);
map("linkStyle", $STYLES);
map("linkStyle", $styles);
map("prnt", $post_tags);

The next error is, you haven't included the global variables correctly inside the function. You need to use:

global $IMPORTS, $STYLES;

Now your code works as expected.

And finally finishing the endPage() function:

function endPage() {
  $endTags = array(
    "</body>",
    "</html>"
  );
  foreach($endTags as $tag)
    echo $tag;
}

edited Jun 04 '16 at 00:05

answered Jun 03 '16 at 23:34

Praveen Kumar Purushothaman

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I don't know how to enable errors.. – mcchucklezz Jun 03 '16 at 23:40
@script8man Did you try the solution first? I gave you a link on understanding how to enable errors. Did you even see that? – Praveen Kumar Purushothaman Jun 03 '16 at 23:42
@script8man FYI: Also see this answer for understanding how to enable errors: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5438060/ And please tell us what's the error you are getting. – Praveen Kumar Purushothaman Jun 03 '16 at 23:45
I managed to turn on errors. I'll link them in an edit. – mcchucklezz Jun 03 '16 at 23:47
@script8man Perfect. Waiting for it. – Praveen Kumar Purushothaman Jun 03 '16 at 23:48
It's here.. Hopefully this helps – mcchucklezz Jun 03 '16 at 23:48
@script8man As I said you, you haven't removed the `/` in front right. Can you try removing the `/` and see what's happening? – Praveen Kumar Purushothaman Jun 03 '16 at 23:48
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/113780/discussion-between-script8man-and-praveen-kumar). – mcchucklezz Jun 03 '16 at 23:49
Including with relative paths is bad. The way to go is explained here : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36577020/failed-to-open-stream-no-such-file-or-directory – Vic Seedoubleyew Jun 12 '16 at 10:11

Newbie trying to figure out PHP

1 Answers1