Converting a response to string in PHP

Question

Is there anyway to convert an html response to string in php. let me expalin through an example.

<?php
function printTitle($title="Welcome"){
?>
<div class='mainTitle'>
<div class='titleLogo'>

</div>
<div class='titleString'>
<?php echo $title; ?>
</div>
</div>

<?php
}
?>

Here calling this function anywhere will output html showing title. Now what I need is to convert this response into string value so that it can be passed as json response like:

$response=array("title"=>printTitle(),"sidebar"=>getSideBar());

echo json_encode($response);

I want to do it like this so that I can fetch title and sidebar via ajax.

One way to do it is like:

<?php
    function printTitle($title="Welcome"){

    $ret="<div class='mainTitle'>
    <div class='titleLogo'>

    </div>
    <div class='titleString'>
    ". $title ."
    </div>
    </div>";

    return $ret;
    }
    ?>

but this makes html really a mess.

@DipeshParmar I am not talking about converting < or > to < or > I want to return the html response as string. — Manish
– Manish, Commented Aug 19, 2013 at 8:36
What do you get in the console when you use console.log in your JavaScript? You should, first of all, remove the line breaks. PHP won't parse this. — Julian F. Weinert
– Julian F. Weinert, Commented Aug 19, 2013 at 8:37
use a mvc framework so you don't have to write html and php mixed too much — DevZer0
– DevZer0, Commented Aug 19, 2013 at 8:37
EDIT: looks like I can comment after all ;) I can't comment yet, so I'll post as an answer. stackoverflow.com/questions/8751182/include-php-file-as-string — Dexa
– Dexa, Commented Aug 19, 2013 at 8:42

Benubird · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-19 08:41:15Z

2

You can use a HEREDOC:

function printTitle($title="Welcome"){
    return <<<HTML
<div class='mainTitle'>
    <div class='titleLogo'>
    </div>
    <div class='titleString'>
    $title
    </div>
</div>
HTML;
}

answered Aug 19, 2013 at 8:41

Benubird

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1 Comment

Benubird Over a year ago

@manish that is because you are outputting it to the browser directly. Use the view source option in your browser to see what it actually outputs, or use htmlentites() to view it in the browser.

Nils · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-19 13:00:33Z

0

Use output buffer:

function printTitle($title="Welcome"){
  ob_start();

  ...

  return ob_get_clean();
}

Changed from ob_get_flush() to ob_get_clean();

edited Aug 19, 2013 at 13:00

answered Aug 19, 2013 at 8:35

Nils

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6 Comments

Julian F. Weinert Over a year ago

This does not make sense, because he is not using echo, but initializes a string variable and returns it.

Benubird Over a year ago

@Julian You need to read the question, not just skip it. This is a valid method that will do what the OP asked.

webbiedave Over a year ago

This answer makes perfect sense. However, ob_get_clean may be a better choice.

Manish Over a year ago

@user2689155 I may be asking too much but can you please give an example, I tried what you told but not getting how to use it.

Manish Over a year ago

I tested your solution it is giving output two times

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