PHP echoing HTML code with more PHP included

Question

I have blocks of HTML code in a MySQL database and my framework needs to print these within a PHP template which will be outputted to the browser. To do so I make this call:

</tr>
    <!-- Section 3 -->
    <?php echo SIN_SiteView::get('section3') ?>
<tr>

Which gets the code either from the APC or MySQL, now the code it obtains looks like this:

<td height="280" colspan="2" bgcolor="#00abd2">
<a href="#">
    <img src="<?php echo SIN_Utilities::l("image", "home_flash.png")?>" width="710" height="280" border="0" />
</a>

As you can see I need to run all images through a method known as "l" which I use to easily change images paths. Now the issue is if I echo that block of code it will simply be echoed as a string and not work.

I tried surrounding the php with '. [code] .' and removing the php but that also did not work. Does anyone have any ideas on how I could properly echo this to the page.

Thanks.

UPDATE: I think I need to be using the eval() command thanks to some of the comments, I simply do not understand how to implement it in my situation. Any simple examples would be greatly appreciated, for example how do I change this line:

<?php echo SIN_SiteView::get('section3') ?>

To echo the entire block featured above, thanks again.

Answer 1

I think you want eval rather than echo. See this slightly different question.

My solution would be to eval '?>'.$myhtml.'<?php'.

Answer 2

You'll need to use eval to evaluate the inline PHP. However, this is potentially quite risky (eval is evil, etc.), especially if any of the content that's being fetched is user sourced.

e.g.: At the very least, what's the stop the user inlining...

<?php die(); ?>

...within the content they enter.

As such, you'll need to take a great deal of care, if there's really no alternative to this approach.

Some updates:

1. If you're new to PHP I'd recommend having a re-think. Chances are there's no need to use eval. (Unless there's a dynamically customised content on a per-user basis then you don't need it.) What are you trying to achieve?

2. What specific error/problem are you having? (I presume you're using var_dump or print_r for debug purposes, etc.) As the content you need to eval isn't pure PHP (it's HTML with PHP in) you'll need to embed the PHP close and (re-)open tags as @Borealid illustrated.

Answer 3

Is the marketing team adding the php code to the html you are storing?

If not, maybe you could change your <?php echo FUNCTION() ?> into @FUNCTION() and evolve your SIN_SiteView::get() into your own templating interpreter?

I agree with cHao though; it would probably be easier to adopt one of the templating packages out there and convert your data over.