What are the potential pitfalls of using PHP includes in a website's navigation structure, especially in terms of scalability and maintainability?

Using PHP includes in a website's navigation structure can lead to scalability and maintainability issues as the code can become difficult to manage and update as the website grows. To address this, consider using a more modular approach such as a database-driven navigation system or a template engine like Twig. 

<?php
// Example of using a database-driven navigation system
// Connect to database and retrieve navigation items
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=your_database', 'username', 'password');
$stmt = $pdo->query('SELECT * FROM navigation_items');
$navigationItems = $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);

// Display navigation items
foreach ($navigationItems as $item) {
    echo '<a href="' . $item['url'] . '">' . $item['name'] . '</a>';
}
?>

Keywords

PHP includes website navigation scalability maintainability code duplication

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