html guy wants to edit php pages

[steve-parrott]

Ok, don't beat me up. I'm a html-only web designer and need to make some simple edits to a dynamic site. I only need to change some words and design elements and promise not to touch any php stuff. I'm doing this as a favor and the client can't afford to pay hundred's to a programmer for this simple stuff.

My first challenge is finding the pages to edit. I'm looking through the directory and see all kinds of folders and files I can't identify. Is there a way to identify where the php template that generates each page is stored? I tried searching for likely content terms in my Mac profile search and on my PC search - no luck.

Thanks.

[morestar]

Hey Steve. Let's start out by trying to figure out what engine is being used to generate the templates. Would you happen to know if the template is wordpress, OSCommerce? X-Cart or anything else?

[weegillis]

Can we see a sample page, please? Also, please describe the elements in the page you wish to change.

With these, and the engine mentioned above, members may be able to point you in the right direction. Perhaps in the meantime take a moment to bookmark the PHP manual and read some tutorials to familiarize yourself with what the code looks like.

[steve-parrott]

Don't know about the engine - I see folders labled fckeditor, smarty, adobd, amfphp.

What kind of page did you want to see?

First task is to change a few words here and there in a form field and a search results heading.

Here's the page I'm working on: http://www.cast-lighting.com/distributor-designer-locator. I can change the main body text in the admin, but I want to change the teal selector words under Search For:

[weegillis]

Just a live page so we can see the page elements and plug-ins (as well as identify the engine).

Add: FCK Editor is the HTML editor plug-in for Drupal, your site engine

[J_Paul]

Something that you can do to find the text in the code.. is download the site... then use dreamweaver.. do a search.. and search the entire folder... It'll find out where the text is.. if it isn't pulled from a database...

Hope that helps a little.

[dean]

Smarty is a template engine and you'll probably find the template file in there. I think they end in .tpl. There may be different templates for different blocks or sections in the page. If you want to change the color, it's in the includes/css/style.css file. The teal color is under the selector, input.left-form #radio_buttons.

[puamana]

In general, a php page is usually just an html document with some additional 'action' code embedded in it, and in order for the php.ini to recognize it as a php file, it must be 'named' with a .php file extension.

Once you have located the file you need to modify (probably as above, a .tpl file, perhaps in includes, or inc) you can open it up in an standard html editor like bbedit or notepad, and change the html code as you wish... as long as you DON'T disturb the php code that's embedded in the page. If you need to move a section of php code, (like the part that generates 'content' in a template page) to another table cell or section of the page, you must be sure to move the ENTIRE section together (between and including the php and close php tags).

Once you have completed your changes, upload and view the results, if there are problems, go back to the backup copy of the original file (you DID back it up, didn't you?) and start again, very carefully.

:) Good luck

-puamana

[seowebmaster123]

if u want to change it,I'm not too sure about what you are trying to do, but here are a few suggestions.

1/ Add apache handlers in .htaccess so that your html files work as php files.
Code:AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .htm
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .html
2/ Write a script in php to load the files, change the local links and then save them with a php extension.

3/In dreamweaver (other software may work) change the filenames to ".php" and click the popup that ask you if you want to update links.