PHP run code from txt file

Question

If i had a text file on my web server, which contains full PHP code, all properly formatted, could i use PHP fopen to read the text file and echo the output of the PHP to the browser. Ie. Run PHP code that is held in a text file rather than hard coded?

Thanks

Answer 1

It's perfectly possible to do this (it's just another file after all), although I'd be tempted to directly include it rather that messing around with fopen/eval, etc. (N.B.: The file would of course have to be "fully formed" and begin with "<?php", etc. for the include to work.)

However, I'd be very wary of naming the file with a .txt extension as this will mean that it'll be possible to browse the contents of this file directly from the browser if it exists in the public HTTP docs area. As such, why not simply write the data into a .php file - this will be no more difficult than a .txt file and offers the advantage that it always be parsed by the web server if someone attempts to access it.