How to execute / run PHP code inside JavaScript files?

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Static files of JavaScript would survive most applications but sometimes the ability to include PHP code inside JavaScript scripts and generate the content of the script files on the fly by PHP is a better option. How does one do that?

The simplest solution is to just include PHP code inside the <script></script> section of your HTML templates / web pages because chances are, the file extension is .php:

<script>
var jsVar = "<?php echo $phpVar ?>";
</script>

Even if it’s not ending in .php, such as in .html or .htm, you can configure your server to parse all .html or .htm files for any PHP code, though with a little extra server burden.

Another solution for this is to make your server parse all files ending in .js. Just create a .htaccess if it doesn’t exist in the directory in which you wish to include and run PHP code inside all .js files. Add these lines at the end of .htaccess:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .js
AddHandler x-httpd-php5 .js

<FilesMatch "\.(js|php)$">
SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
</FilesMatch>

Now you can add all the PHP code you can inside any JavaScript files with a .js extension, the server will automatically parse and run them when the client side requests the file.