How can I echo the whole content of a .html file in PHP?

Question

Is there a way I can echo the whole content of a .html file in PHP?

For example, I have some sample.html file, and I want to echo that filename, so its content should be displayed.

Answer 1

You should use readfile() :

readfile("/path/to/file");

This will read the file and send it to the browser in one command. This is essentially the same as:

echo file_get_contents("/path/to/file");

except that file_get_contents() may cause the script to crash for large files, while readfile() won't.

Answer 2

Just use:

<?php
    include("/path/to/file.html");
?>

That will echo it as well. This also has the benefit of executing any PHP in the file.

If you need to do anything with the contents, use file_get_contents(),

For example,

<?php
    $pagecontents = file_get_contents("/path/to/file.html");

    echo str_replace("Banana", "Pineapple", $pagecontents);

?>

This doesn't execute code in that file, so be careful if you expect that to work.

I usually use:

include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/path/to/file/as/in/url.html");

as then I can move files without breaking the includes.

Answer 3

If you want to make sure the HTML file doesn't contain any PHP code and will not be executed as PHP, do not use include or require . Simply do:

echo file_get_contents("/path/to/file.html");