Setting your colour theme through PHP

Although we usually think of PHP as a server side language concerned with databases and the driving of applications, it's also of great use in controlling the use's look and feel ... indeed, I've just written a number of examples of how PHP can be used to select a set of colours (themes) for the user. Here's the sort of code that you might find in the PHP page.

<?php if ($_REQUEST[colset] == 1) { ?>

body {color: navy; background: olive;}

.person {}

.toptit {font-size: 140%; color: purple;}

.total {color: maroon;}

<?php } else { ?>

body {color: yellow; background: black;}

.person {}

.toptit {font-size: 120%; color: aqua;}

.total {color: green;}

<?php } ?>

The use of a themed approach rather than providing controls over individual attributes means that the page provider can select appropriate combinations and allow the user to quickly and easily switch between the - the opposite alternative of providing controls on a per-attribute basis may give far greater flexibility, but it also gives rise to a system that it's longwinded for the user to change, and a system in which the user can, potentilly, hit on a totally inappropriate combination.

See - source code and code demonstration

Our new course module also includes a step by step guide to generating separate style sheets through PHP - ideal for a shared-style web site, and vital if you're concerned with flexible coding to meet the UK's DDA (Disability Discrimination Act)

Update - I've added a complete example into the new course module that combines PHP, style themes, cookies and a pulldown menu to change the themes. See here for the source code and here to run the code
(written 2006-12-17, updated 2006-12-21)

Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles

H118 - Generating CSS through PHP
  [565] Using PHP to output images, XML, Style sheets, etc - (2006-01-15)
  [501] .css - using PHP to make dynamic style sheets - (2005-11-21)

W704 - Web and Intranet - Cascading style sheets - putting it all together
  [4037] Cascading Style Sheets and formatting your web page - (2013-03-10)
  [2223] CSS Style Diagrams - working out where attributes come from - (2009-06-08)
  [1677] CSS training - Cascading Style Sheets (UK course) - (2008-06-15)
  [994] Training on Cascading Style Sheets - (2006-12-17)

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