Manipulate HTML page via PHP

Question

Hello I have INCLUDED a PHP file in the end of an HTML page. Now I want to add a style file before the end of the tag HEAD. But I need to do this via this php file, I have no choice.

I have and index.php file and at the end of this file I am loading script.php I need to add a script in the header of index page using the script.php

Folder structure:

index.php
script.php

The index.php file have this code:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>
 something
</head>

<body>
   something
</body>
</html>
<?php 
   include "script.php"
?>

How can I put something in the head of the HTML/PHP when I have the script.php file at the end of a page.

Can you please clarify what you're doing and what you're asking? Does this index.php/script.php file produce the full HTML page, and you want to stick some more stuff into the section of the page? If the section is all HTML, you can stick `` at the appropriate point. I'm assuming that script.php writes out something and is not simply a function definition. — Phil Perry, May 29 '14 at 18:03
@PhilPerry sure, is a hard question... can you check it now. — Ignacio Correia, May 29 '14 at 18:05
I'll ask the obvious. Why can't you just move the include into the head? — Paul Dessert, May 29 '14 at 18:06
That is the PROBLEM the script file is loaded at the end of each page and I need to put something in the header without moving the script.php position. — Ignacio Correia, May 29 '14 at 18:06
That is way I need help because I cannot move, that is the challenge. That is the difficult. — Ignacio Correia, May 29 '14 at 18:07
WHY can't you move it? It seems like a structural problem you're trying to band-aid — Paul Dessert, May 29 '14 at 18:07
@relentless please check Mark answer is something like that that I need. That challenge is manipulate the DOM via PHP — Ignacio Correia, May 29 '14 at 18:09
Yes, that solution might work, but again, WHY can't you move it. Fix the real problem. — Paul Dessert, May 29 '14 at 18:10
I am going to change 40000 pages. I don't want to do that manually :) — Ignacio Correia, May 29 '14 at 18:11
OK, so currently you have script.php which adds whatever it adds to the end of the page, after — Phil Perry, May 29 '14 at 18:11
40000 pages need updating? Is the change needed consistent enough that you could write a script (e.g., in Perl) to automate the update? And you haven't explained _why_ you can't just update script.php rather than hitting the PHP source code. Are you just defining Javascript functions in script.php, or doing some other things? — Phil Perry, May 29 '14 at 18:13
Yes... I tried for last 4 hours to do that. I cannot make my Perl code work with my server :( — Ignacio Correia, May 29 '14 at 18:14
@PhilPerry here is the main problem -> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23940239/run-a-perl-script-in-plesk-11 — Ignacio Correia, May 29 '14 at 18:20

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered May 29 '14 at 18:16

There is no direct way to do this. I can think about 2 nasty workarounds for your problem though:

If the script has buffering activated (called ob_start somewhere before HEAD was closed), you could get it as a string and clean it wirh ob_get_clean, then insert your code and ECHO it again. Could look like this:
```
<?php
$output = ob_get_clean();
$output = substr_replace($output, $your_code, strpos($output, '</head>'), 0);
echo $output;
?>
```
Since modern browsers are quite forgiving, you actually can put style tags after the closing html and they will still work. I woudln't do this though, since it's bad habit

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 29 '14 at 18:06

Create IF logic within your included PHP page, and then include it into both the HEAD and at the end of your HTML.

Within your HTML, set a variable before the HEAD's include, and then reset the same variable after the HEAD's include.

Regarding the IF logic, set it up so TRUE only runs the style sheet, and FALSE skips over the style sheet and runs the rest of the PHP script.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 29 '14 at 18:07

what you could do is this:

put ob_start(); at the start of your page or all pages.. ( i hope for you this is possible)
use ob_get_contents(); to get all the contents into a variable:
inject your code with a replace
clean the output buffer with ob_end_clean()
echo the modified code.

so this code will look like this:

<?php ob_start();
//a lot of your code and html here
$codeToInject="yourcode";
$content=ob_get_contents();
$content=str_replace("</head>",$codeToInject."</head>");
ob_end_clean();
echo $content;
?>

But be aware.. this is NOT the way to go. It will potentially slow down your page. Its not a clean way of coding, actually its tricking around. if possible you should reconcider refactoring your code in a way this is not needed.

I will try it now. Something like this is what I need. I can prepend and append so I can try it :) — Ignacio Correia, May 29 '14 at 18:08

Manipulate HTML page via PHP

3 Answers3