Best practice for embedding Adminer within a custom UI/template?

[DesignThinkerer]

Hi all,

I'm hoping to get some advice on the best way to integrate Adminer into a client's custom ERP.

The Goal:

My goal is to display the Adminer UI inside the existing admin panel of the ERP. The panel already has its own persistent UI elements like a sidebar and a top navigation bar, and I want Adminer to render inside the main content area.

The Challenge:

When I include 'adminer.php'; within my page template, Adminer takes control of the entire HTTP response. It seems to echo its HTML directly and uses header() calls and exit() statements, which bypasses my application's templating system and erases the surrounding UI.

What I've Tried:

1. Output Buffering (ob_start): I attempted to capture Adminer's output into a variable ($output = ob_get_clean();) to inject it into my layout. This fails during operations like login or switching databases, likely because of the aforementioned header() redirects.
2. Using an <iframe>: This was my next thought, but Adminer's built-in security (X-Frame-Options) correctly prevents it from being embedded in an iframe.
3. Using the iframe Plugin: I am aware of the official plugin-iframe.php which is designed for this exact purpose. However, I have a strict client requirement: the entire database management tool must remain as a single PHP file. This prevents me from using the standard plugin loader which requires a separate file for the plugin.

My Questions:

1. Is there a known method to compile or bundle Adminer with a plugin (like the iframe plugin) into a single, distributable PHP file?
2. Failing that, is there a way to modify Adminer's core rendering behavior to make it "template-friendly"? For instance, to have it return its HTML as a string rather than echoing directly?
3. Am I perhaps missing a much simpler or more obvious approach to achieve this kind of UI integration?

I would be very grateful for any pointers or advice you could offer. Thank you!

[vrana]

Requiring a single PHP file is silly. I would start by removing this requirement. There's no plugin bundler but you can try to create one. Phar could be another option.