html - PHP approach to creating article list -

i plan write function dynamically create article , news list, don't know proper approach.

i have /articles , /news folders containing files article1.php, article2.php etc.

these files contain variables $date (publishing date), $type (news/article), $h1, $h2 (title, subtitle), $short (short paraghaph display on list).

i want create list of these files displaying on 1 page.

html:

<div>     $content <!--here goes list of articles/news--> </div> 

would better to:

1.

• write while loop in articlelist.php:

[pseudocode]      $content = "";     while (get filename /articles)        include filename        $content .= (variables filename.php parsed html)     display $content 

• and second same loop newslist.php.

(with approach e.g. sorting articles date difficult.)

or maybe:

2.

• create articlearray.php , newsarray.php files storing data each article , news file in array in form key : value = $date : [$type, $h1, $h2, $short]
• create parsearray function parsing whole given array html (containing data files)
• call $content = parsearray(...) in articlelist.php , newslist.php
• display $content.

or there other better solution?

edit:

i don't have database because of small amount articles/news. i'll use 1 if it'll necessary, @ moment please assume should done pure php. (i asked question learning purposes, not practical.)

first of all: managing content , or code in different files recommended (for better understandability , maintainability), not obligatory. chose following approach. separate content 3 files:

1. index.php (contains "main" functions)
2. data.php (contains data)
3. functions.php (contains callable functions)

index.php

// index.php  require_once 'data.php'; require_once 'functions.php';  $allowedmodules = array('articles', 'news');  if(empty($_get['m']) || null === $_get['m']) {     die('module required'); } else {     $module = $_get['m']; }  if(!in_array($module, $allowedmodules)) {     die('invalid module'); }  echo execute($module); 

data.php

// data.php  $data = array(     'articles' => array(         array(             'date' => '2014-06-10',             'type' => 'article',             'h1' => 'my headline #1',             'h2' => 'subheadline #1',             'short' => 'my teaser'         ),         array(             'date' => '2014-06-09',             'type' => 'article',             'h1' => 'my headline #2',             'h2' => 'subheadline #2',             'short' => 'my teaser'         )     ),     'news' => array(         array(             'date' => '2014-06-08',             'type' => 'news',             'h1' => 'my news headline #3',             'h2' => 'subheadline #3',             'short' => 'my teaser'         ),     ) ); 

functions.php

// functions.php  function execute($module) {     global $data;     $content .= '<div>';     foreach($data[$module] $item) {         $content .= '<span>' . $item['date'] . '</span>';         $content .= '<h1>'. $item['h1'] . '</h1>';         // $content .= ...     }     $content .= "</div>";     return $content; } 

now can call page via index.php?m=articles or index.php?m=news show articles or news.

sidenote: approach makes somehow easy switch database later.