PHP has a mechanism that allows you stop the compiler on a given line. This allows you to put non-PHP code after that line without affecting your code. You can put data, JSON, HTML, etc after the __halt_compiler() line and then read it with your script. Here is a simple function that reads the text after your __halt_compiler()

// Borrowed from https://gist.github.com/ziadoz/5286233
function get_halt_str() {
    return file_get_contents(__FILE__, false, null, __COMPILER_HALT_OFFSET__ + 1);
}

See also: Perl version