include/echo output of PHP

Question

I got two projects running, both written in PHP. Now I want to merge these two projects. The first project is a CMS and on a specific page i will display the contents of the other project / application. I don't want the first project to know about, or get access to, the variables and functions in the other and vice versa. So i just want the CMS, the first project, to receive the contents of output of the other project.

I don't want to make another http-request – using get_file_contents or cURL because of load-time. I find passthru() and system() hard to get working, but if that is a possibility, please teach me the way.

I also need to pass some variables from the first project to the other on execution, controller_id and model_id.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Iframes and load via javascript is not an option in consideration of accessability guidelines.

Answer 1

You have several options you already discarded:

• server side integration at code level (include, etc...)
• server side integration via curl

You should therefore probably rely on client-side integration:

• load content via AJAX (best option for me): see Jquery load function, for example. You can pass any parameters, and data, and everything should work
• load content via iframes

Answer 2

maybe you could use an iFrame and pass some stuff via the query string... allthough that's another request on load...

Answer 3

What version of PHP are you running? You could always port the portion of the app that will, for all intents and purposes, be considered the "child" to a seperate namespace, effectively cutting it off from all the rest of the app and vice-versa.

Check out the manual entry on Defining Namespaces to see if it's for you