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How to include file marked in string in PHP?

I have a string, where user can add special mark, for example [include=example_file] and I would like to include “example_file.php” to the place where the mark is.

User’s text can be like:

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
Lorem Ipsum has been the industrys standard dummy text ever since the 1500s.

[include=contact_form] // here should be contact_form.php included

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
Lorem Ipsum has been the industrys standard dummy text ever since the 1500s

I use this, to echo user’s text, now:

<?php echo $this->view['users_text']; ?>

… and new output should be like:

<?php
// echo first paragraph
include "contact_form.php";
// echo second paragraph
?>

What is the simplest way how to include files finded in those special marks?

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Answer

Be careful of LFI attacks, but to achieve this, match the placeholder with regex, loop over it, use the value to load the file within a buffer, then replace the placeholder with the buffer.

Like this:

<?php
$content = '
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
Lorem Ipsum has been the industrys standard dummy text ever since the 1500s.

[include=contact_form] // here should be contact_form.php included

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
Lorem Ipsum has been the industrys standard dummy text ever since the 1500s

[include=cat] // here should be cat.php included
';

// match 
if (preg_match_all('#[include=(?P<name>.*?)]#', $content, $includes)) {
    // loop
    foreach($includes['name'] as $include) {
        // buffer
        ob_start();
        //include($include.'.php'); // ????
        echo 'I was from '.$include.'.php';
        $buffer = ob_get_clean();

        // replace
        $content = str_replace('[include='.$include.']', $buffer, $content);
    }
}

echo $content;

https://3v4l.org/qPqbI

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