web hosts wont configure server for <?php ?> tags

My web hosts are streamline.net. After a lot of problems with my pages
which included php inside Html, I realised that their parser wasn't
recognizing the tags. Entire .php scripts were running ok, but
embedded ones were being output as text. I contacted them to ask if
they could configure their side to work with <?php ?>, but they
have refused. Is there any good reason for this, or is it as I
suspect, they don't know how to do it. I even sent them a link to
instructions on how to do it.

Is this normal for them to refuse to do this ? Does php.net have any
kind of literature I could send them to encourage them, or are there
some security risks that I don't know about ? Or do I have to get a
new host..?

Carved in mystic runes upon the very living rock, the last words of
charlie fortune of comp.lang.php make plain:

> I contacted them to ask if they could configure their side to work
> with <?php ?>, but they have refused. Is there any good reason for
> this, or is it as I suspect, they don't know how to do it.

More likely the latter, or some other variety of cluelessness.

> Is this normal for them to refuse to do this ? Does php.net have any
> kind of literature I could send them to encourage them, or are there
> some security risks that I don't know about ? Or do I have to get a
> new host..?

I'd go with the last option.

--
Alan Little
Phorm PHP Form Processor
http://www.phorm.com/

charlie fortune wrote:
> My web hosts are streamline.net. After a lot of problems with my
pages
> which included php inside Html, I realised that their parser wasn't
> recognizing the tags. Entire .php scripts were running ok, but
> embedded ones were being output as text. I contacted them to ask if
> they could configure their side to work with <?php ?>, but they
> have refused. Is there any good reason for this, or is it as I
> suspect, they don't know how to do it. I even sent them a link to
> instructions on how to do it.
>
> Is this normal for them to refuse to do this ?
<snip>

It depends. Forcing to parse HTML files is kinda overhead. Unless
there is no good reason to do it, may resist doing it. It is always a
good practice to embed HTML in .php files than to embed PHP codes in
..html files.

--
<?php echo 'Just another PHP saint'; ?>
Email: rrjanbiah-at-Y!com Blog: http://rajeshanbiah.blogspot.com/

charlie fortune <google@charliefortune.com> wrote:

> Or do I have to get a
> new host..?

Well, this is what I would likely do.

charlie fortune wrote:

> My web hosts are streamline.net. After a lot of problems with my pages
> which included php inside Html, I realised that their parser wasn't
> recognizing the tags. Entire .php scripts were running ok, but
> embedded ones were being output as text. I contacted them to ask if
> they could configure their side to work with <?php ?>, but they
> have refused. Is there any good reason for this, or is it as I
> suspect, they don't know how to do it. I even sent them a link to
> instructions on how to do it.
>
> Is this normal for them to refuse to do this ? Does php.net have any
> kind of literature I could send them to encourage them, or are there
> some security risks that I don't know about ? Or do I have to get a
> new host..?

I don't know anything about your host, but try creating a .htaccess file
in your doc root that contains:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .html

If is an apache server, and the host allows for Overrides, then this
should work fine. Otherwise, get a different host or change all .html
files that have PHP in them to .php

--
Justin Koivisto - justin@koivi.com
http://koivi.com

"charlie fortune" <google@charliefortune.com> wrote in message
news:8f3ded09.0503210153.10a807c4@posting.google.c om...
> Is this normal for them to refuse to do this ? Does php.net have any
> kind of literature I could send them to encourage them, or are there
> some security risks that I don't know about ? Or do I have to get a
> new host..?

Yes, because it's not a general practice to do so. If a file needs to be
parsed by PHP, people usually would give it the extension .php, even if it
contains mostly HTML code.

"charlie fortune" <google@charliefortune.com> wrote in message
news:8f3ded09.0503210153.10a807c4@posting.google.c om...
> My web hosts are streamline.net. After a lot of problems with my pages
> which included php inside Html, I realised that their parser wasn't
> recognizing the tags. Entire .php scripts were running ok, but
> embedded ones were being output as text. I contacted them to ask if
> they could configure their side to work with <?php ?>, but they
> have refused. Is there any good reason for this, or is it as I
> suspect, they don't know how to do it. I even sent them a link to
> instructions on how to do it.
>
> Is this normal for them to refuse to do this ? Does php.net have any
> kind of literature I could send them to encourage them, or are there
> some security risks that I don't know about ? Or do I have to get a
> new host..?

If your talking about filtering .html files through the PHP processor, I as
a webhost might refuse to do it also. If you have a file that contains PHP
give it a .php extension -- that's why there is one.

Is there something stopping you from using a .php extension with your file?

Now, don't get me wrong, webhosting (especially PHP/mySQL) is easy to come
by, so if you are really having problem with them, looking elsewhere isn't
such a bad idea... but don't jump the gun :)

-Joe