require_once() and include() using ROOT

PHP
1

Hey guys,

I am trying to figure out the closest way to replicate the the HTML href attribute in PHP, in the following way…

<code>href=“/folder/file.php”</code>

The above code works for any page located anywhere on the website because it starts at the root (using the slash –> / in the begging of the link).

How can I do this with PHP’s require_once() and include() functions?
Obviously doing <code>include(‘/folder/file.php’);</code> doesn’t work… Instead I’ve been forced to use direct relative linking [e.g. include(‘…/…/…/folder/file.php’);]

2

Hi,
When using includes and such I find it easier to do docroot:


<?php
$docroot = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];
include("$docroot/folder/to/file.php");
?>

That way…even if you change hosts you might not have to change the code on all the pages that use this.
Hope points to alternative,
Kevin

3

Great. Thanks a lot Kevin!!

Would it pose any problem to use that on just about every page of a website? And given that a website has like 1000 pages?

Also, what advantage is there to declaring a variable for the document root instead of just doing <code>require_once ($_SERVER[‘DOCUMENT_ROOT’] . “/global.php”);</code>

4

One more thing, what do you think is faster? And is it MUCH faster? Given that both of these work for a page…

require_once ($_SERVER[‘DOCUMENT_ROOT’] . “/forum/global.php”);
vs.
require_once (“…/…/forum/global.php”);

5

Like I stated, yes, you put it on all the pages at the top where you need it and you (usually) won’t have to change it as every host has a document root (or almost every host) if they use apache or have access to htaccess.

It’s a fire and forget method. So that on every document you create all you have to do is:


include("$docroot/somefile.php");
require_once("$docroot/some/other/location/file.php");

and so on.

I really do find it easy to go from one website hosting company to another without modifying all the pages all over again.

Is worth doing IMHO.

Kevin

6

They both work but if you change hosts, you may have to change the code again anyway. You could really do either or.

7

Thanks pal!

8

You’re welcome. I do use it heavily on my site and it’s worked for the last several years, even when I switched hosts like 10 times…lol