How to avoid/get rid of code duplication?

[Cuffz]

Hi,

Explanation 1.

I have many links to many html files but the html files are all the same except for one variable.

How can I make the links link to one piece of code (html) and insert the variable into the appropriate place in that code instead of the above situation?

Explanation 2.

I have 100s of files with the following code in:

<object codebase="http://go.divx.com/plugin/DivXBrowserPlugin.cab" height="396" width="704" classid="clsid:67DABFBF-D0AB-41fa-9C46-CC0F21721616"><param name="autoplay" value="false"><param name="src" value="http://video.stage6.com/000000/.divx" /><param name="custommode" value="Stage6" /><param name="showpostplaybackad" value="false" /><embed type="video/divx" src="http://video.stage6.com/000000/.divx" pluginspage="http://go.divx.com/plugin/download/" showpostplaybackad="false" custommode="Stage6" autoplay="false" height="376" width="704" /></object>

I want to have one copy of that code, not 100s
I want the link to insert the desired variable in this section of the code here:
<param name="src" value="http://video.stage6.com/000000/.divx" />
The variable is the "0000000" bit.

Rather than link to a html file with a copy of that code and variable in./ link to a duplicate of the code with changed variable.

I have found a way to move all the duplicates of the code into one html file with an ajax pagination script.. however, now I need a way around this code duplication.


Thanks!

[mike_w]

The easiest way is probably just to use a server side language, such as PHP or ASP, and then process the variables via GET i.e. use URLs such as index.php?foo=123. In PHP, you'd have something like:

echo '<param name="src" value="http://video.stage6.com/' . $_GET['video'] . '/.divx" />';

although you'd probably want to check that the variable is valid before inserting it.

You can use mod rewrite with Apache to turn these into 'nice' URLs e.g. Have /contactus/ point to /index.php?page=contactus

I've never really used Javascript before, but I'd imagine you could do something similar with it.

[directhex]

any page that won't work without javascript is broken

server-side is the way here

[Cuffz]

Thanks for replies :] server side it is then..