Php include without changing file extension?

[grimsqueaker]

Just wondering if there was a way to have a php include without changing the file extension of a webpaage from .html to .php? The site I'm working on has already been established for a very long time, and changing the extension of files will cause utter chaos with backlinks/sitelinks/etc.

I want to implement php includes for the header/footer/etc. so they don't have to update every single webpage when they want to make change. If this is not possible with a php include, is there a way to acheive the same effect using different method?

Thanks!

[veridicus]

Technically you can tell apache to treat .html files as PHP, but I don't recommend it. You probably want to use mod_rewrite. One way is to configure mod_rewrite to send all requests to one PHP file (e.g. index.php) with the path requested as a GET parameter. Then include the header, main content (based on the GET parameter), and footer files.

[logic_earth]

If you are including files with "include or require" they can be any file extension and they will be parsed as php files.

Now what I would do is use mod_rewrite to change all the URLs to extension-less and redirect all the old URL to the new ones. (Using redirect 301)

[grimsqueaker]

thanks for your suggestions guys!

I decided to just go with a sideserver include instead, and chgne the htaccess files to disply .shtml as .html files, it seemed the easiest way.