Is it possible to include file in an include file in PHP

Question

I have a basic page structure in php that contains include files for head and footer. In the footer, i want to add an include file that will load only if the page as the data-table class. Something like:

if ($class == 'data-table')
    include(SHARED_PATH . '/load-datatables.php');

My goal is to load scripts only when needed. I'm a newby in PHP so I want to start with simple things. Thanks!

Answer 1

If you are going to search for the "data-table" class in the page using php that would be hard. Although here's what you can do.

Add a php variable that indicates whether the datatable class "data-table" is being used in the page

// index.php

<?php $pageUsesDataTable = true; ?>
...
...
<table class="data-table">.....</table>

// Then load the script if depending on the variable

if ($pageUsesDataTable)
    include(SHARED_PATH . '/load-datatables.php');

Or you could just check if the "data-table" class exists in the page, if so initialize the datatable if it is generic

// dTable.js or <script>

if($('.data-table').length != 0) {
  // initialize the datatable
}

Although there's always a cleaner approach out there, try to search deeper. Good luck

Answer 2

Put this variable in those pages where you want to include the php-file load-datatables:

$include_datatables_file = true;

Then include a generic file called checkinclude.php on all your pages: checkinclude.php:

if (!isset($include_datatable_file)) {$include_datatable_file = false;}
if ($include_datatable_file === true) {
    include_once(SHARED_PATH . '/load-datatables.php');
}

Answer 3

After Anurag's comment: Did you try it... Of course I did, but I didn't get the right path so it didn't work. Changed the path and it works as expected. Like I said, it might not be the cleanest way or the best practice. But it works and it's easy to set up. Thanks for all answers!