Ronald B Stamets, Web Site Design and Development Services

Output_fns. Your global web design file

Here is where you are going to make your website incredibly easy to manage.

You will need to open both default.html and output_fns.php with your text editor.  As we work, you will need to access both files so be prepared to minimize one file as you work on the other, then maximize the other when you need to get at it again.  It may be a little confusing at first, but you will get the hang of it quickly.

1 - Open output_fns.php with your text editor.

Step 2 - Open default.html with your text editor

You should now have 2 files open on your desktop.  If you don't maximize them, you can click on a part of the partially hidden one to bring it to the top.

Scroll down this page to the code you will be copying and compare it with the code in your default.html file. You will notice that there is some new code in red.

We have created a Function.  A function is a snippet of code (or an entire program) that can be executed by simply "calling" it.  Here,  instead of duplicating the same html on every page, we simply execute it by calling it's function.

A function MUST have PHP started <?php AND it MUST be enclosed in start { and stop } brackets.

BEFORE switching to HTML, PHP must be stopped ?>

All of the code, up to the end of your heading row is included in this function, except we made our comments more concise and we removed the borders on the table. (BORDER="0").

Copy all of the code below and paste it into the empty output_fns.php file.