Man, I could swear I saw it somewhere, the useful syntax for shortening the <?php echo $var ?> construct, and I think it was <?=$var?> but it doesn't work. I've searched about half an hour now but can't find the website again that told me about it, and I can't figure out the correct syntax.
Am I hallucinating or is there really a syntax like this?
<div style="background-color:<?=$backgroundColorFromPhp?>">
Hello <?=$name?>!
</div>
PHP has the short_open_tag directive in php.ini which enables this syntax:
<? PHP code here; ?>
as opposed to <?php PHP code here; ?>.
It also enables
<?= variable ?>
as a shorthand for <? echo variable; ?>. The docs note that as of PHP 5.4.0 <?= will be enabled regardless of the short_open_tag setting.
Very similar is asp_tags. It enables the classic ASP-style syntax:
<% PHP code here; %>
<%= variable %>
which is where the echo-shorthand syntax originally came from. Side note: In classic ASP <%= ... would replace the rather verbose form:
<% Response.Write variable %>
When short_open_tag is enabled,
<?= $backgroundColorFromPhp ?>
is a shortcut for
<?php echo $backgroundColorFromPhp; ?>
however, if short_open_tag is disabled,
<?= $backgroundColorFromPhp ?>
will also be disabled (prior to PHP 5.4).
Yes, that's correct, given some caveats.
First, you have to have short tags on. In my experience, this is the default configuration, as noted by the documentation above;
Second, you need the file to be parsed by PHP. If the file is a .html file, it won't be parsed automatically by the php engine. You'll need to run it through somehow, or tell php to read .html files by default.
Finally, I like to throw that end statement semicolon in there (making it <?=$name;?>), but that's a point of preference, I believe.
there is really a syntax like that on php and it would only work when you set your server to make it work it's called shorthand but this technique is strongly discouraged because there are some servers on which this is disabled and may provide some unidentified errors when used mistakenly. I think I first saw this being used on wordpress. ;)
What you are trying to do should be done as follows
<div style="background-color:<?=$backgroundColorFromPHP ?>">
Hello <?=$name ?>!
</div>
In short, leave a space after the before the last ? mark
And please strictly avoid echoing your html contents. Thats simply a bad style. Always keep dynamics of your php code separated from the html elements.
?> are seperated with a whitespace from the variable-name? That does not solve it, short_open_tags is the solution. :) And that extra whitespace doesnt make any differnce actually..