Different headers depending on incoming link.

[randelld]

Hi All.
I have a forum running on my site. I would like to include it in a couple of other sites but would like each site to use a different header for the forum in order to appear as part of each site.

The forum is php
I was thinking of using a simple iframe to insert the forum but would really like to each serve a different header or no header at all.

Does anybody have any suggestions for doing this??

Thank you

[wige]

Iframes can be problematic, as search engines don't often index framed content correctly, and most likely a user following a SERP link to the forum would be taken to the iframe content page. In addition, there are browser differences that could make that approach problematic.

My suggestion would be to use a php command to import a header and footer based on some get variable. Something along the lines of:
if ($_GET['site'] == 'site1') {
require("site1header.php");
}

That way, if your forum is at www.myforum.com/page.php, if the visitor comes to www.myforum.com/page.php?site=site1 they would see the header. Otherwise, no header would display.

[incrediblehelp]

Does anyone see any SEO problems with doing this?

[TrafficProducer]

each serve a different header or no header at all

.

SEO problems

Seach Engins may see this as Cloaking be careful.

[Vectorman211]

IFRAME=SEO Death, Accessibility Death and will generaly get you laughed at in many cases.

The SEO issue is irrelevant as he is talking about completely different web sites. The simple way would be to deploy the forum software on each individual website and have them share the same database. That way you can completely customize the forum code to integrate into your main site's look and feel.

If you want a central code base for your forums it get's a little trickier. You could as you stated yourself include a different header and/or footer for each site depending on which site is being used to access the forums. This can easily be determined using the $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] predefined variable.

[randelld]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.
Vectorman:
Can you give me an example of how I would use the $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] predefined variable.

Thanks

[Vectorman211]

Certainly:

//Determine which header to call
switch($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']){
   case "www.domain1.com":
      require("domain1/header/file");
   break;
   case "www.domain2.com":
      require("domain2/header/file");
   break;
   default:
      require("default/header/file");
}

[randelld]

Wow, is that it?
I'll be happy a play with that tomorrow.
Thanks very much

[Vectorman211]

Yep, no problem! :D

[randelld]

Hi Vectorman,
Thanks for your help. I've been trying with the snippet but I keep getting an error. Can you take a quick look at it for me.

****** Begin Code*******
include "func.inc.php";
//Determine which header to call
switch($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']){
case "www.domain1.com":
require("www.domain1.com/exchange/header.php");
break;
case "www.domain2.com":
require("www.domain1.com/exchange/header2.php");
break;
default:
require("www.domain1.com/exchange/header.php");
}
//include "header.php";
********* End Code******
Here is the error that it is giving

Warning: main(www.mydomain.com/exchange/header.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/fhlinux194/m/mydomain.com/user/htdocs/exchange/index1.php on line 25

Warning: main(www.mydomain.com/exchange/header.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/fhlinux194/m/mydomain.com/user/htdocs/exchange/index1.php on line 25

Warning: main(www.mydomain.com/exchange/header.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/fhlinux194/m/mydomain.com/user/htdocs/exchange/index1.php on line 25

Fatal error: main(): Failed opening required 'www.mydomain.com/exchange/header.php' (include_path='.:/usr/share/pear') in /home/fhlinux194/m/mydomain.com/user/htdocs/exchange/index1.php on line 25

Thank you for your time guys.

[Vectorman211]

You can't require a php file via HTTP because it will be parsed by the PHP interpreter before being sent. The websites must reside on the same server and have read permission of the PHPBB code base. Or as I said before the simplest way would be to install duplicate code of PHPBB on each website and have them share the same database. Then you can fully customize the look and feel of PHPBB to match your website's.

[chadhaajay]

I fully agree with the suggestions of Vectorman !

Sincerely,

Ajay Chadha (Director)
Chadha Software Technologies