How to parse HTML files as PHP on an Apache web server
Someone asked me today for help with their PHP website. He was trying to parse HTML files as PHP on his Apache webserver. This is very easy to do using the .htaccess file but he just could not seem to get his files to parse using the instructions he found on Apache’s website:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .html
The thing to remember with something as diverse as Apache and PHP, different hosts will have different configurations. For example, some hosts runs both PHP4 and PHP5. In this case, he was hosting the company website through HostGator. This is what had to be added to the htaccess file to get it to correctly parse the files:
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php5 .html .htm
With other hosts, you can get away with:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .html .htm
or
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .html .htm
or
AddHandler x-httpd-php .html .htm
And still yet, some hosts require both AddHandler and AddType directives for it to work correctly:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .htm .html
AddHandler x-httpd-php .htm .html
Hope this helps. Leave a comment if you have any questions.
