Including PHP variable in <a href> -- please help!

[Feabionsu]

Hi there,

 

I am trying to have a PHP variable in my link, so that my final link would look like this:

 

http://www.example.com/eformat/variable-goes-here.rtf

 

I've managed to get http://www.example.com/variable-goes-here using the code below, but I can't seem to insert the "eformat/" and ".rtf" parts. I really don't know PHP very well, so help would be greatly appreciated. Please excuse my beginner level. Thank you!

 

<?php $eformat = $post–>post_name; echo "<a href=\"$eformat\">Download this blog post in eFormat (.rtf)</a>" ?>

[Maq]

echo "

[karimali831]

try:

 

echo '<a href="'.$eformat.'rtf">Download this blog post in eFormat (.rtf)</a>';

[Maq]

I prefer to have the master string in double quotes because it allows variables to interpolate.  For attributes, I use single quotes.

[Feabionsu]

Karim, your code only gave me http://www.example.com/rtf. What do you think?

 

Maq, I implemented your code but it only gave me http://www.example.com/eformat/.rtf. I'm not sure why it refuses to recognize the variable $eformat, since the code in my first post makes it work... any ideas?

 

<?php $eformat = $post–>post_name; echo "<a href='eformat/{$eformat}.rtf'>Link</a>" ?>

[Maq]

What is $post–>post_name;?  Does it return anything?

[Feabionsu]

It is variable that returns the post slug in Wordpress. So for example, a blog post that has the URL http://www.example.com/example-post would return as "example-post" (without quotes) when using that variable. Same thing with http://www.example.com/2010/12/example-post.

 

My purpose is to make the blog post downloadable in rtf format. I want to have a direct link to the .rtf file of each blog post. I figure that if I make a folder located at http://www.example.com/eformat and put .rtf files with the same names as the post slugs of the blog posts, it would work. I could try an alternative variable, such as the post title or the post number...

 

EDIT: Here is the list of the variables I can use. I would still prefer to use the post slug though. Makes things simpler and better for the reader, than something called 001.rtf.

 

I'm assuming I can't just use $post–>post_name since it always gives me errors... that's why I switched to using $eformat. But like I said, I virtually know no PHP, so I'm not really knowledgeable on what works and what doesn't, what code is correct and what is incorrect.

[Feabionsu]

Wow, two solutions have been found on two other forums. And here I was trying to figure out even one solution by myself.

 

<?php echo "<a href='eformat/{$post->post_name}.rtf'>Download this blog post in eFormat (.rtf)</a>" ?>

 

<?php $var = $post->post_name; echo '<a href="eformat/' . $var . '.rtf">Download this blog post in eFormat (.rtf)</a>'; ?>

 

Maq, thank you for your help. Your code was essentially the same as the solution; it was just me who thought I couldn't use plain old $post–>post_name with it.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

[Maq]

Glad you got it working.  Weird that either of our solutions were successful because, like you said, they are essentially the same.

[Feabionsu]

Just another quick question: how would I include a title tag in your solution with the title also being a variable?

[Maq]

Something like this:

 

$var = $post->post_name; 
$title = $post->post_title;

echo "Download this blog post in eFormat (.rtf) - {$title}';";

?>

[Feabionsu]

Sorry, I meant the title attribute, as in <a href="" title="">. Following your example though, I've devised this:

 

<?php echo "<a href='eformat/{$post->post_name}.rtf' title='{$post->post_title} (.rtf)'>(.rtf)</a>" ?>

It works perfectly; thanks again! =D

 

Which solution (the 'var' one or this one) would be considered a more clean code? Which one should I use? I like the one above since it essentially takes up less space, but perhaps you consider the other to be more organized and easy-to-read?

[Maq]

IMO, the 'var'.  I generally like to define variables before they are used so if you have to make a change to them you only have to do it in a single place.