best way to deal with includes file paths

[Popovich88]

Hi.
I need to include a file into some other files that are in different directories.
I have made a config_php file that contains a defined variable BASE_URI which the path to the root folder of my webiste.

The problem is to include the config_php the relative path for the varies from page to page (pages in different folders).

Should i use an absolute path to that file.or there is a best way?

PS:When i try to use absolute path in localhost i get an error:
"URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration "

How to change that?

[guido2004]

include '/config.php'; 

[Locker]

include '/config.php'; 

Surely that wont have the desired effect? For example, the path could be...

/something/something/scriptlocation

In this situation, it would look for config.php in the first "/" directory, rather than "scriptlocation".

I'm having a similar problem. I want to know how to make a web app work no matter what directory it is installed in. I thought the way to get around that would be to store the path to the script installation in a config file, but then that file itself needs to be included which is where it gets confusing.

[guido2004]

Surely that wont have the desired effect? For example, the path could be...

/something/something/scriptlocation

In this situation, it would look for config.php in the first "/" directory, rather than "scriptlocation".

Of course. I was assuming his config file would be in the root directory. In your example, the include would be

include '/something/something/config.php'; 

It would be more complicated if he didn't know the exact folder, because it wouldn't be possible to hard code the path to the file. But it seemed to me from his OP that this is not the case. He tried an absolute path, and got an error. If he knows the absolute path to the file, he'll be able to know the relative path starting from the root ('/') as well.

[Popovich88]

I didnt know that if i put /... it will start from the root directory.

Thanks. That should work.

I love this forum


Edit: Strange. If i put require_once '/Site/config/config.php'; it doesn´t work.
If i put $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']. '/Site/config/config.php it works.

I am using wamp and my server root is C:/wamp/www.

[decowski]

I didnt know that if i put /... it will start from the root directory.

Thanks. That should work.

I love this forum


Edit: Strange. If i put require_once '/Site/config/config.php'; it doesn´t work.
If i put $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']. '/Site/config/config.php it works.

I am using wamp and my server root is C:/wamp/www.

It's not strange. PHP is operating on a filesystem level so absolute paths are relative to the root of the volume, not the document root.

[zalucius]

In my projects, Im usually using a constant based on a file or a folder I know exists. Usually its my "Includes" folder

This is placed in the configuration file, which ofcourse is included on every page of my website.

The code is simple, and works like a charm:

// locate the root folder, based on the location of the Administration folder
for ($root = ''; !is_dir($root.'Includes'); $root .= '../');
define('ROOT', $root);

No matter how deep into your file structure you are, the for loop moves back through the folders, looking for the directory "Includes" and when it locates the folder, the contents of the variable "$root" is placed in the constant "ROOT".
Because its a constant, it will work in functions aswell.

Example of usage:

include(ROOT.'Includes/Navigation.php');

Ofcourse one can easily be creative, and define constants for each folder, making it easy to locate specifik folders without risking typo's

// locate the root folder, based on the location of the Administration folder
for ($root = ''; !is_dir($root.'Includes'); $root .= '../');
define('ROOT', $root);
define('ADMIN', ROOT.'Administration/');
define('INCLUDES', ROOT.'Includes/');
define('IMAGES', ROOT.'Images/'); 
// etc.....

Another neat bonus, is that I can test if ROOT is not defined, and make sure no one directly accesses any file that should have been included.
Simply place this line at the top of the file:

if(!defined('ROOT')) header('location: http: //www.google.com');

The only drawback I can think of, is that I need to know the location of the configuration file where the ROOT constant is defined, but I think it's a relative easy thing to keep track of.

[Vali]

In my projects, Im usually using a constant based on a file or a folder I know exists. Usually its my "Includes" folder

This is placed in the configuration file, which ofcourse is included on every page of my website.

How do you include that 1 configuration file?

[zalucius]

How do you include that 1 configuration file?

Just like you normally would...

Imagine we are in the administration of the website, the page requested resides in the admin folder, giving a path like this: "Administration/edit_something.php"
The configuration file is located in the "Includes" folder, giving it a path like this "Includes/configuration.php"

The edit_something.php would then include the configuration like this:

require_once('../Includes/configuration.php');
require_once(ADMIN.'some_file_in_admin_folder.php'); // just as an example

If the requested file was in a subfolder of a subfolder of the includes folder, then the path would look like this:

require_once('../../configuration.php');
require_once(IMAGES.'some_picture.jpg'); // just as an example