Why PHP?

The Portland State Dreamweaver template makes use of a small amount of the PHP scripting language so that:

• your site can include the standard Portland State header and footer from a central location—so any changes to these files will be included on your site automatically
• you can maintain a single file for all the navigation in your site that will be displayed as dropdown menus from the main navigation toolbar (eg, hover over Getting Started above) and as a sitemap (eg, click on the Sitemap link in the site header above or site footer below)

You do not need to know how to use PHP to make use of this template—just don't change any PHP code you don't understand.

PHP is enabled on all Portland State websites, so you do not need to do anything special to start taking advantage of PHP other than make sure your pages end in a ".php" file extension (eg, instead of ".html"). If you use the template to make pages on your site, it will automatically add the proper ".php" file extension.