How can external text files be effectively utilized to store and manage content in a PHP application for easy updates?

To effectively utilize external text files to store and manage content in a PHP application for easy updates, you can create separate text files for different types of content (e.g. header, footer, sidebar) and then read and display the content dynamically in your PHP application. This way, you can easily update the content by editing the text files without modifying the PHP code.

// Read content from external text file
$header_content = file_get_contents('header.txt');
$footer_content = file_get_contents('footer.txt');
$sidebar_content = file_get_contents('sidebar.txt');

// Display content in your PHP application
echo $header_content;
echo $sidebar_content;
// Your main content goes here
echo $footer_content;