Let's assume I have the following file - template.php:
<?php $string = 'Hello World!'; ?>
<html>
<head>
<title>Test Page!</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1><?= $string; ?></h1>
<p>You should see something above this line</p>
</body>
</html>
I'm aware that I can use file_get_contents() to get the contents of the file as a string, which I can then manipulate as I require. However, file_get_contents() doesn't execute PHP statements.
I have successfully used cURL to get access to the rendered version of the file, but it seems rather slow and clunky, adding quite a fair amount of time to the execution of the page - which I would imagine is due to a DNS lookup being performed.
So, how can I get the contents of template.php into a string - while having usable PHP there?