Using PHP include to separate site content

Question

I\'m looking for advice on the best practice for separating site content up into logical blocks. I want a header and footer that are constant throughout the site, so that if

Answer 1

index.php -- includes header, footer, and content based on REQUEST variable.
header.php -- header content
footer.php -- footer content

content1.php, content2.php, etc.

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index.php:

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if you want the URL to go www.domain.com/pagename where the page you're trying to load into index.php is "pagename", use HTACCESS and do some URL Rewriting: http://corz.org/serv/tricks/htaccess2.php