.Php files need a .php extension?

Question

I am creating a bunch of php documents that are included. .cfg for configuration files, .tpl for template structure files, .dlf for document layout files, dbh for database connections, etc.

Now they are called .tpl.php, .dlf.php, etc. But do I need to have a .php extension too? If not, are there any extensions I should not use? e.g. .exe for executable files ..

Answer 1

You can change the server configuration to include other file extensions as PHP

In Apache, you can add to this:

<FilesMatch \.php$> SetHandler application/x-httpd-php </FilesMatch> 

if you include files, then any extension will do:

in script.php:

 include 'includes/foo.inc'; include 'inlcudes/bar.whatever'; 

everyone will work

Answer 2

From Hiding PHP to PHP.net :

Another tactic is to configure web servers, such as apache, to analyze various file types via PHP, either using the .htaccess directive or in the apache configuration file itself. Then you can use the misleading file extensions:

 # Make PHP code look like unknown types AddType application/x-httpd-php .bop .foo .133t 

---

So, you can add the .htaccess rule, which means that your server processes .tpl , .dlf , etc., as if they were PHP files, for example:

 AddType application/x-httpd-php .tpl .dlf .dbh 

---

However, if you use only include or require , it doesn't matter which extension you use:

 include "inc/template.tpl"; require "inc/database.dbh"; require_once("inc/config.ext.php.url.tpl.cfg");