Pass Data over include()?

Hi,


I'm quite new to PHP and I need some help. I want to create a completely templated site - such that index.htm would call on "body.php", and "body.php" would call "header.php", "sidebar.php" and "content.php" - all of which include both HTML and PHP code.

Using include(), I can manage to do that flawlessly. The problem is that I realised that part of the header (say the picture on it) needs to be distinct and different from each page - perhaps even the sidebar too. Reading around, I've found that one can use the include() function and the appropriate code from the called file to generate a returned statement; but that's not what I'm after. My initial thoughts of solving this would be to pass, say "index" to body.php, and that body.php would pass the same to header.php, which would then analyze it and produce the appropriate picture for the page. In that sense, index.htm and news.htm would then have different pictures for their headers.

Is that the right/best way of doing it? If so, what am I missing? If not, what alternative methods can I employ to work around this?

I read also that forms are one way of passing data through but I'd imagine that to be overly complicated for this a simple html file deployment.

Anyways, thanks for your time and I look forward to your replies


Sincerely,
Hugh Zen

If you set a variable (or pass one at the query string), it's good for all includes. So if index.php has a variable named $page whose value is "index," then referring to $index from any of the sub-includes should allow you to differentiate your headers, etc., using an if or switch block and pulling in the appropriate headers.

so in all sence. The "index.php" after having included all the subpages. will act as ONE page. that have all the subpages hardcoded into it