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I have just figured out how to define the root path and paths relative from root with php, it works on localhost and my live server.
<?php
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/' . $dir . '/includes/file.html';
?>
Still it is slightly long. Is there a way to shortern this, or delcare this function once somewhere, so I only have to type "/" or something similar to specify the root directory in localhost and live server?
Something like this?
If you are using front-controller pattern (you are controlling whole site via index.php), just define the constant there and you can use it sitewide.PHP Code:define('SITE_PATH', realpath(dirname(__FILE__)));
You can also use <base> tag to define base URL for all links and images on your site, so you won't need to write the full path every time:
Put it somewhere between <head> and </head>PHP Code:<base href="<?php echo SITE_PATH; ?>" />
Also is it a good idea to include every single thing that is repeated on my webpages.
For example put the DTD, <html><body> tags, css link in head etc in "include.html", and then in my webages just use the php to include that file at a tag at the top and then put the content for that webpage.
I know I would need to change different things such as meta tags in head between webpages, but just theoretically, is there anything wrong with including everything but the webpage content in an external file.
Like this in my "include.php":
****
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en" dir="ltr">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
<title>
</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/layout/global.css"/>
</head>
<body>
<div id="centre">
<div id="top">
<div class="floatr">ON MEDIAS BETA VERSION 2008. COMMERCIAL AND CULT ENTERTAINMENT SOURCE</div>
</div>
<div id="logo">
<a href="/copyright.php">Copyright notice</a>
</div>
<div id="nav">
<div id="navbarl"></div>
<div id="navbarr"></div>
<ul class="nav">
<li><a href="/">MAIN</a></li>
<li><a href="/tv">TV</a></li>
<li><a href="/movies">MOVIES</a></li>
<li><a href="/systems">SYSTEMS</a></li>
<li><a href="/news">NEWS</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div id="conttop">
<div id="conttopl"></div>
<div id="conttopr"></div>
</div>
<div id="content">
****
and this in all my webpages
*****
<?php
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/' . $dir . '/includes/include.php';
?>
individual page content here
*****
Nothing bad with it at all. In fact, that's how it is usually done. My webpages usually all look like this (simplified of course):I know I would need to change different things such as meta tags in head between webpages, but just theoretically, is there anything wrong with including everything but the webpage content in an external file.
You get the point. Then, header.php could look for example like this:PHP Code:<?php include header.php; ?>
<div id="content">
<h2><?php echo htmlspecialchars($h2); ?></h2>
<?php echo htmlspecialchars($content); ?>
</div>
<?php include footer.php; ?>
footer.php might look like this:PHP Code:<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head profile="http://gmpg.org/xfn/11">
<title><?php echo htmlspecialchars($title); ?></title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/default.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />
</head>
<body>
<div id="header">
<h1><?php echo htmlspecialchars($h1); ?></h1>
</div>
PHP Code:<div id="footer">
<p>All contents copyright © <?php echo date('Y'); ?> Richard Knop</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>
I have no idea what **If you are using front-controller pattern (you are controlling whole site via index.php), just define the constant there and you can use it sitewide.*** means.
Are you saying I only need to put it in my index.php in my root directory? I have called all my webpages index.php in seperate subfolders so that people can just type x.com/, instead of x.com/xyg.php.
So if I put this in my head of my webpage <base href="<?php echo SITE_PATH; ?>" />, then what do I put to call the root path... "/" ?
Actually since I am including a lot of content anyway I could put something in my include.php which also declares the root path..... or not -because I need to specify the root path before I include anything...
Thanks risoknop. It makes my life a lot easier.
It does lead me to more questions though.... suppose I wanted to declare
<?php include mainframe.php; ?>
only once.
And then have different meta tags, content, and information in the header. I could specify in mainframe.php all my page headers and content, but a function which calls upon to go back to the original webpage and insert the different content, this way I don't have to use the <?php include header.php; ?> a million times between bits of content in my webpages.
oh. is that what <?php echo htmlspecialchars($title); ?> means? getting the content from the original page?
What I meant was that when you have just one index.php file which acts as a single point of entry to your website, you can just define the constant there and it will be sitewide.I have no idea what **If you are using front-controller pattern (you are controlling whole site via index.php), just define the constant there and you can use it sitewide.*** means.
Well in that case it won't work. You will have to put in every index.php file. Or, you can put it in header.php file (or call it differently if you wish) and include that file in every index.php.Are you saying I only need to put it in my index.php in my root directory? I have called all my webpages index.php in seperate subfolders so that people can just type x.com/, instead of x.com/xyg.php.
SITE_PATH is a constant containing absolute URL to your website. Just do:So if I put this in my head of my webpage <base href="<?php echo SITE_PATH; ?>" />, then what do I put to call the root path... "/" ?
Actually since I am including a lot of content anyway I could put something in my include.php which also declares the root path..... or not -because I need to specify the root path before I include anything...
to see what is there.PHP Code:echo SITE_PATH;
See http://www.w3schools.com/TAGS/tag_base.asp for <base> tag explanation.
Well, it's a little bit more complicated... I'm using MVC design pattern so I just set the $title in every action so it dynamically changes.Originally Posted by cyjetsu
Be careful blindly applying design methodologies. In risoknop's example, while he may be using MVC, he violates DRY in his template files with the header and footer includes.
Brad Hanson, Web Applications & Scalability Specialist
► Is your website outgrowing its current hosting solution?
► PM me for a FREE scalability consult!
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I have no idea what that means bhanson, could you elaborate?
If something works, then I can see no problem, since it is executed on the server the same way whatever visitor access's the site with whatever browser or platform, so once you test it once, it should always work.... as long as you don't edit the php code.
DRY stands for Don't Repeat Yourself. In that example for every content page you have to include code for both the header and the footer. With just a small amount of extra thought in the design process, you could eliminate that need by using something closer to a template system.
Template file:
Content file example:PHP Code:<html>
<body>
<?=$this->content?>
</body>
</html>
PHP Code:<h1>Title</h1>
<p>Look, no unneeded header/footer includes</p>
Brad Hanson, Web Applications & Scalability Specialist
► Is your website outgrowing its current hosting solution?
► PM me for a FREE scalability consult!
► USA Based: Available by Phone, Skype, AIM, and E-mail.
Thanks bhanson, I haven't realized I am doing this mistake
I still do not understand it all fully, I will research this template system more. I don't know much php, but already it has optimized my website development by an amount I cannot begin to describe. I should have started php a long time ago.
I have a new problem.
I have a tracking script I have added.
<?php
$ipaddress = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$page = "http://{$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}";
// $page .= iif(!empty($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']), "?{$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']}", "");
$referrer = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
$datetime = mktime();
$useragent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];
$remotehost = @getHostByAddr($ipaddress);
$logline = $ipaddress . '|' . $referrer . '|' . $datetime . '|' . $useragent . '|' . $remotehost . '|' . $page . "\n";
$logfile = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/' . $dir . '/logfile.txt';
if (!$handle = fopen($logfile, 'a+')) {
die("Failed to open log file");
}
if (fwrite($handle, $logline) === FALSE) {
die("Failed to write to log file");
}
fclose($handle);
?>
<?php include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/' . $dir . '/logfile.txt'; ?>
I added the last line to output the contents in the browser, just for testing. The problem is, $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/' . $dir . '/logfile.txt'; is not working on my live host anymore(I get failed to open logfile), it works on localhost though.
It is strange because this script is in a file and I am using $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/' . $dir . '/logfile.txt'; to call this file. so this include method is working, unless I use the method in a php script which is called upon with this include method. If you can understand that.
actually no thats not right, i have used it in the last line i added for testing. so there must be something wrong with the syntax of $logfile = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/' . $dir . '/logfile.txt'; only when on a live server?
Also strangly enough, $logfile = 'logfile.txt'; only works on localserver too.....
Last edited by cyjetsu; Dec 26, 2008 at 21:53.
I have rightly or wrongly always used getcwd() to find out where the file is situated. I also have include a '_common.php' file that and this is one of the settings:
I would solve your problem with the different paths for the "logfile.txt" file like this.PHP Code:error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);
ini_set('display_errors','On');
define('LOCALHOST', 'localhost' === $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']);
PHP Code:
// default to Online
$logfile = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/' . $dir . '/logfile.txt';
if (LOCALHOST)
{
$logfile = getcwd() . '/logfile.txt';
}
if (!$handle = fopen($logfile, 'a+'))
{
die("Failed to open: " .$logfile);
}
As far as using a CMS and passing different $title parameters I use this code at the top of all files:
and here is my header:PHP Code:
<?php echo $doctype ?>
<head>
<?php echo $header ?>
</head>
As a matter of interest I use CodeIgniter an "Open Source Web Application Framework that helps you write kick-*** PHP programs". What application framework are you using?PHP Code:
<?php
// sometimes these variables are not set - easier to check here than to have an error
$keywords = isset($keywords) ? $keywords : 'Johns-Joke of the day';
$description = isset($description) ? $description : $keywords;
?>
<title>Johns Joke of the Day: <?= $joke_title ?></title>
<meta name="keywords" content="<?= $keywords ?>" />
<meta name="description" content="<?= $description ?>" />
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=UTF-8" />
<link type="text/css" href="style_001.css" rel="stylesheet" />
<meta name="author" content="John_Betong" />
<meta http-equiv="imagetoolbar" content="no" />
<meta name="robots" content="follow, all" />
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
<script type='text/css'>
<!--[if !IE]>-->
body {font-size:10px}
<!--<[endif]-->
</script>
Thanks thats a lot of useful information, am processing it all now.
First of all, Failed to open: /var/www/vhosts/onmedias.com/httpdocs/logfile.txt, is the error I get when I use your script(when on my live host, localhost shows no error as usual:
<?php
// default to Online
$logfile = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/' . $dir . '/logfile.txt';
if (LOCALHOST)
{
$logfile = getcwd() . '/logfile.txt';
}
if (!$handle = fopen($logfile, 'a+'))
{
die("Failed to open: " .$logfile);
}
?>
Since this is still only happening on my live server, I suspect it is my file permissions on my live server, so far only include works on my live server.... I have tried various chmods at the beggining of the file to try and set permissions for this file but I always get a parse error or a T_variable error or something.
As for apps, I am using none yet, just emEditor, the text/code editor I use for everything.
now I am sure of it.
<?php
chmod("logfile.txt", 0777);
$filename = 'logfile.txt'; // Unix
if (is_writable($filename)) {
print file_get_contents($filename);
} else {
print 'File not readable!';
}
?>
I get the error file not readable(well writable whatever), but I have put
chmod("logfile.txt", 0777);
I dont get it.
I tried
chmod($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/' . $dir . '/logfile.txt', 0777);
But I still get "failed to open file" only on my livehost
Please use the PHP tags when displaying code.
That will only change logfile.txt to 0777 if you already have permission to. Chmod() returns a boolean value so you can use that to check to see if it's changing it.PHP Code:chmod("logfile.txt", 0777);
As for the parse error on line 3, well... there's a parse error on line 3. You have a semi-colon where there shouldn't be one.PHP Code:$changed = chmod("logfile.txt", 0777);
if ($changed) {
echo "Success\n";
} else {
echo "Failure\n";
}
Brad Hanson, Web Applications & Scalability Specialist
► Is your website outgrowing its current hosting solution?
► PM me for a FREE scalability consult!
► USA Based: Available by Phone, Skype, AIM, and E-mail.
You are right bhanson. I added that test code, and on my localhost I get "success" and on my livehost I get "failure" Now I just need to work out how to get permission to change the permissions of my files on my livehost.
I changed the permissions in my webhost control panel instead. works ok
Posting Permissions
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