Prepend and Append Files with .htaccess

By  on  

One of the lessor known and used capabilities of .htaccess files is the ability to prepend and append includes to every page request.  Doing so avoids needing to code <?php require('footer.php'); ?> in every template file you wat to use them in.  Here's the .htaccess code:

# Prepend the file
php_value auto_prepend_file "/dir/path/utilities.php"

# Append file to bottom of page
php_value auto_append_file "/dir/path/templates/footer.php"

Now don't mistake this post as me telling you to use this strategy;  using this functionality creates a layer of indirection that could confuse a team of developers if they don't all have a grasp of where automatically included files are coming from.  Just wanted to let you know this was possible!

Recent Features

  • By
    Send Text Messages with PHP

    Kids these days, I tell ya.  All they care about is the technology.  The video games.  The bottled water.  Oh, and the texting, always the texting.  Back in my day, all we had was...OK, I had all of these things too.  But I still don't get...

  • By
    LightFace:  Facebook Lightbox for MooTools

    One of the web components I've always loved has been Facebook's modal dialog.  This "lightbox" isn't like others:  no dark overlay, no obnoxious animating to size, and it doesn't try to do "too much."  With Facebook's dialog in mind, I've created LightFace:  a Facebook lightbox...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Chris Coyier’s Favorite CodePen Demos IV

    Did you know you can triple-heart things on CodePen? We’ve had that little not-so-hidden feature forever. You can click that little heart button on any Pen (or Project, Collection, or Post) on CodePen to show the creator a little love, but you can click it again...

  • By
    Image Reflection with jQuery and MooTools

    One subtle detail that can make a big difference on any web design is the use of image reflections. Using them too often can become obnoxious but using reflections on large, "masthead" images is a classy enhancement. Unfortunately creating image reflections within your...

Discussion

  1. Markus

    this strategy is often used to hook a profiler into an existing app, which works great in DEV environments
    see e.g. http://xhprof.io/

  2. Barry Wood

    I can see it now, the /html directory full of code snippets, and an incredibly convoluted htaccess file that conditionally assembles the various pages for a site. :)

    • Quick! Turn it into a framework!

  3. I’ve used to use this technique, but dropped it for a while now.
    It appears very useful at first but can be dangerous actually…
    One of its weakness is the impossibility to “un” prepend or “un” append according to directory or filematch directives.

  4. Matthew

    How can i use the .httaccess pre-append a .php file? i have tried using—– php_value auto_prepend_file “inc.php”

    Am getting this error: Fatal error: Unknown: Failed opening required ‘inc.php” (include_path=’.;D:\xampp\php\PEAR’) in Unknown on line 0

  5. Abhijeet

    @Matthew

    have you tried using full path like /var/www/site/dir/file.php?

  6. .htaccess – is a single file for all project. And I think it’s a bad practice to prepend files, because they will prepend on all pages.

  7. I find it hard to believe @ Pluto htaccess allows if statements.

    php_value auto_prepend_file "fullpath/headers.php"
    php_value auto_append_file "fullpath/index.php"
    
  8. Thanks Chris, this would be a great way to append a “copyright link” that can’t easily be found.

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!