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Routing and Rendering

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github-actions[bot] edited this page May 13, 2026 · 13 revisions

Routing and Rendering

Route Structure

most pages are folder routes:

  • /feed -> feed/index.php + feed/content.html
  • /journal/posts/12 -> journal/posts/index.php
  • /settings -> settings/index.php + settings/content.html

static error pages are the main exception:

  • error/403/index.html
  • error/404/index.html
  • error/50x/index.html
  • error/wip/index.html

Upward File Lookup

most PHP routes define a local find_template_file() helper that walks up parent directories until it finds a requested file.

that means nested routes can still find:

  • template.html
  • template_mobile.html
  • content.html
  • lib/render.php
  • root-level assets or data paths

admin account pages use equivalent helpers in account/admin/helpers.php.

Standard Render Flow

typical route flow:

  1. start session through fridg3_start_session() from lib/session.php
  2. optionally enforce auth/admin checks
  3. load render helper from lib/render.php
  4. choose template with get_preferred_template_name(__DIR__)
  5. load local content.html
  6. inject placeholders like {content}, {title}, {description}, {user_greeting}
  7. optionally swap account footer button to logout when logged in

theme selection also runs through lib/render.php. desktop requests can use a theme HTML template from /themes/lib; mobile requests always keep template_mobile.html and append the selected theme CSS after the mobile inline styles.

some routes also pull in extra shared libs like lib/feed.php for route-specific persistence helpers instead of keeping all that logic inline.

Homepage Special Case

root index.php is more dynamic than the wrapper routes.

it injects:

  • latest feed post from data/feed/*.txt
  • latest journal post from data/journal/*.txt
  • up to 3 music cards from data/music/frdg3/*.json

it also contains older bookmark-loading logic that still points at /data/users, which is legacy behavior and worth keeping an eye on.

Wrapper Routes vs Data Routes

wrapper routes are mostly just shell + static content:

  • discord/
  • merch/
  • parts of others/

data-backed routes do real work:

  • feed/
  • journal/
  • guestbook/
  • bookmarks/
  • contact/
  • music/
  • gallery/
  • account/*
  • api/*

WIP / Maintenance Behavior

maintenance mode is driven by data/etc/wip.

main.js:

  • loads the flag
  • shows the maintenance banner
  • redirects non-admins to /error/wip
  • allows /account/login and /error/wip

the admin bypass depends on either:

  • is_admin cookie
  • /api/account/is-admin

Page View Counting

page views are not baked in by PHP. the footer view count is hydrated by main.js, which posts the current path to /api/page-view.

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