Using PHP variables inside body content area

Question

I'm having trouble with using PHP code on my pages, within my body content area. I've searched tirelessly on this site, Drupal's site, and other sites in general, so I apologize if the answer is on this site somewhere, but I can't find it and I need help.

We have a lot of info we reuse throughout our site that I'd like to store in a PHP file as variables. We do this on our site now, but I'm rewriting our whole site to use Drupal. So, for example, we sell software, and I'd like a variable for each of our product URLs for various 'add to cart' buttons on the site. I don't want to have to hardcode the product URL into each link, but rather to seta PHP variable that I can call on any drupal page.

I cannot get anything to work; I've read about several suggestions but none work. I've tried setting the variables as their own block, then calling them from within a page when I create a new page. I can echo the variables on the pages but only within the block they are inside, I cannot call them and get them to echo from other blocks or content areas. I've tried using the global keyword (as per one suggestion) but that didn't work for me.

I hope this makes sense. Other info? I'm using Drupal 6.x, I do have PHP code enabled when creating pages, I do have the PHP filter module enabled, I can get PHP code to render so I know it's working, it's just not working where I need it to be.

I should say (if it's not obvious just from reading this!) I am a Drupal newbie so if anyone can help and try to explain their suggestion as plainly as possible for me, I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks in advance.

EDIT 3/15/11

To try to explain further, I'll post some sample code. I haven't done this yet because there isn't much to show yet, and I thought it might confuse the issue even more.

So, I've made a Drupal 'page' which is for our software trial downloads. The PHP variables that I want to set are for our download links; I want to set them in one place so that if, in the future, the download link needs to change, I only have to do so in one spot. You see, we have download links on various site pages. The same is true of our 'buy now' links. Here is the page code:

<p>Try [product] free for 30 days.</p>

<!--<p>[token_custom_ewintry]</p>-->

<p><?php global $ewintry; ?><a href="<?php print $ewintry; ?>">Download for Windows PC</a></p>

<p><?php global $emactry; ?><a href="<?php print $emactry; ?>">Download for Mac OS X</a></p>

<p><?php global $ebbtry; ?><a href="<?php print $ebbtry; ?>">Download for   BlackBerry</a></p>


<?php 
$ebbtryprint = variable_get("ebbtry", "default");
print $ebbtryprint;
?>

<p><a href="<?php print $ewmtry; ?>">Download for Windows Mobile</a></p>

<p><?php global $ipewlstorelink; ?>iPhone, iPad, iPod touch owners: <a href="<?php print $ipewlstorelink; ?>">Download [product] on the iTunes App Store</a>. You'll be able to create 10 cards for free to try [product] before you buy!</p>

For this sample I've left in everything I've tried. You'll see my calls to global variables, which never worked. I have the global variables defined in a custom block that I created and placed in my 'content top' region. I learned that apparently nothing from that region is actually accesible to my page's body content, because the calls never worked.

I have a custom token that I made yesterday with the Tokens module; it never worked, but then I read on a different post that by default, tokens are available in the body content area, and I need a special filter. I've yet to find a filter, and so I am not sure this solution will ever work.

I have my call to variable_get. Now, this did work. I have variable_set defined within my template.php page. My value does print using the print call above in my code sample. However, I looked at this page this morning and I don't think that's the answer I need. Because now I'll have to call variable_get on all my pages before I can print anything, right? And that doesn't solve the problem where I wanted to only have to set everything in one place to call anywhere. I tried putting the variable_get call in my custom block, but again I can't access anything in 'content top' from my body content area. The variable_get call prints the value in 'content top' but then it will not re-print below that in the content area.

So maybe that code will help someone to help me. I am going to look in detail at CCK now, as that's the only other suggestion I haven't tried. Thanks in advance if anyone can help.

Answer 1

If you're trying to set a global variable, and then use it within a function/method block, you need to use the global keyword on import:

<?php 

// For some reason, this sometimes gives me problems
$foo = 'test';

// So I do this instead, they are equivalent
$GLOBALS['bar'] = 'test';

echo "<p>Global <br/> foo: $foo <br/> bar: $bar</p>";

function globalTest() {
    global $foo;

    echo "<p>globalTest() <br/> foo: $foo <br/> bar: $bar</p>";
}

globalTest();

function globalBarTest() {
    global $foo, $bar;

    echo "<p>globalBarTest() <br/> foo: $foo <br/> bar: $bar</p>";
}

globalBarTest();

?>

In action: http://jfcoder.com/test/globals.php

Prints:

Global
foo: test
bar: test

globalTest()
foo: test
bar:

globalBarTest()
foo: test
bar: test

I have always gotten in the habit of setting a global variable using $GLOBALS, I never have any issues doing it this way.

I would caution, though, that setting globally scoped variables is considered harmful (or at least unnecessary), since they are so easy to accidentally overwrite somewhere else in your code (by you and/or someone else).

Your stated approach in the description sounds quite messy; you should be using a database and let Drupal abstract how you organize, set and get the data from the datastore, instead of editing your files and hardcoding some links and data into a PHP file. This is what I'm thinking reading your description, which may not be fair, but I thought I needed to mention it.

EDIT

In Drupal, you can set global variables in the default/settings.php page using variable_set(), and then use variable_get() to get the variable by name.

http://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/sites--default--default.settings.php/6

variable_set('foo','bar');

http://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/includes--theme.inc/function/template_preprocess/6

function yourtemplate_preprocess (&$variables) {
    $vars['foo'] = variable_get('foo');
}

EDIT 2

Note the source for the variable_set() function:

<?php

function variable_set($name, $value) {
    global $conf;

    $serialized_value = serialize($value);
    db_query("UPDATE {variable} SET value = '%s' WHERE name = '%s'", $serialized_value, $name);
    if (!db_affected_rows()) {
        @db_query("INSERT INTO {variable} (name, value) VALUES ('%s', '%s')", $name, $serialized_value);
    }

    cache_clear_all('variables', 'cache');

    $conf[$name] = $value;
}

?>

EDIT

Ok, here is what you can do:

/drupal-root/htdocs/sites/settings.php

Open the settings.php file and at the bottom, set your PHP variables using the $GLOBALS global variables, as so:

$GLOBALS['test1_variable'] = 'test 1 variable';

And then in your template (with the PHP Input Format selected):

<?php

echo "<p>This is my {$GLOBALS['test1_variable']}.</p>";

?>

Or...

<p>This is my short tag <?=$GLOBALS['test1_variable'];?>.</p>

And you should see your variable printed out on the page from the template code. Note the curly braces surrounding the $GLOBALS variable.

Answer 2

If you want to provide additional info that should go with some nodes, you should use CCK to create a content type, that has all the additional infos. With styling inside a template, you can archive almost anything.

If CCK is not siutable (in most cases, it is exactly what you want), you need to implement a _preprocess_ function. This would look like

function yourtemplate_preprocess_page(&$variables) {
  $vars['my_custom_var'] = "hello"; //anything can go here
}

Now you have a $my_custom_var in your page-template file available.

Be sure to make yourself familiar with the template system of Drupal (if you haven't already).

Answer 3

It sounds like you are looking for the token_filter module. My problem is that it isn't ready (in token module) for D7 yet.