PHP Directory Scope - php

Question

I'm facing a pretty particular problem, basically I'm tryng to create an header in my PHP project. I put my navbar into the "View" folder, and I'm including it with require in each page that I need to use it, I do the same thing with my head, that includes stylesheet and other stuff... Basically the problem is when I try to call the head/the navbar all the relative paths that I used in my 2 files get messed up, since when I call them I'm into another folder. I found three different solutions, and the one who seems to be the best doesn't work.
(I would rather not to use js, if there's any other good solution)
1 Solution that I tried:
I used absolute PATHS, it works, but it doesn't seem right to me, first of all, the file is not going to work in other computers, but only in mine, and it doesn't seem to be a correct approach to the problem. (But then I thought about creating a constant that contains the path of the folder which contains the project, but there's a problem, how do I make that constant to be accessible from every single file in the project? Since when I create it, it's not global.
2 Solution that I tried:
This one is kinda tricky, I basically tried to make a function that generates the entire navbar
<?php
include_once(PATH.'/functions/relpath.php');
function getNavbar($currentPage, $isInsert, $inserimenti){
$navbar = "
<nav class='navbar navbar-expand-md navbar-dark bg-dark fixed-top'>
<div class='container-fluid'>
<a class='navbar-brand' href='#'>Libreria</a>
<button class='navbar-toggler' type='button' data-bs-toggle='collapse' data-bs-target='#navbarsExampleDefault' aria-controls='navbarsExampleDefault' aria-expanded='false' aria-label='Toggle navigation'>
<span class='navbar-toggler-icon'></span>
</button>
<div class='collapse navbar-collapse' id='navbarsExampleDefault'>
<ul class='navbar-nav me-auto mb-2 mb-md-0'> ";
if($isInsert){
//Nel caso in cui ci troviamo in una pagine di inserimento
$pathhome = getRelativePath($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'],PATH.'/index.php');
$pathtabella = getRelativePath($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'],PATH.'/src/tabelle.php');
$navbar.= "
<ul class='navbar-nav me-auto mb-2 mb-md-0'>
<li class='nav-item'>
<a class='nav-link' href='".$pathhome."'>Home</a>
</li>
<li class='nav-item'>
<a class='nav-link' href='".$pathtabella."'>Tabelle</a>
</li>
<a class='nav-link dropdown-toggle active' href='#' id='dropdown01' data-bs-toggle='dropdown' aria-expanded='false'>Inserisci</a>
<ul class='dropdown-menu' aria-labelledby='dropdown01'>
";
foreach($inserimenti as $key => $value){
$relpath = getRelativePath($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'],PATH.'/'.$value);
$navbar.= "
<li><a class='dropdown-item' href='".$relpath."'>".$value."</a></li>
";
}
$navbar.="
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
";
}else{
//Nel caso in cui ci troviamo in un altra pagina, non di inserimento
$pathhome = getRelativePath($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'],'/progetti/www/Informatica/Marzo2021/ProgettoLibreria/index.php');
echo("PHP SELF: ".$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']."\n PATH ABS: ".PATH.'/index.php'."\n Path Generata da Funzione ".$pathhome);
$pathtabella = getRelativePath($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'],PATH.'/src/tabelle.php');
if($currentPage=="index.php"){
$navbar.= "
<ul class='navbar-nav me-auto mb-2 mb-md-0'>
<li class='nav-item'>
<a class='nav-link active' aria-current='page' href='".$pathhome."'>Home</a>
</li>
<li class='nav-item'>
<a class='nav-link' href='".$pathtabella."'>Tabelle</a>
</li>
<a class='nav-link dropdown-toggle' href='#' id='dropdown01' data-bs-toggle='dropdown' aria-expanded='false'>Inserisci</a>
<ul class='dropdown-menu' aria-labelledby='dropdown01'>
";
}else{
//Dovrebbe quindi essere la tabella
$navbar.= "
<ul class='navbar-nav me-auto mb-2 mb-md-0'>
<li class='nav-item'>
<a class='nav-link' href='".$pathhome."'>Home</a>
</li>
<li class='nav-item'>
<a class='nav-link active' aria-current='page' href='".$pathtabella."'>Tabelle</a>
</li>
<a class='nav-link dropdown-toggle' href='#' id='dropdown01' data-bs-toggle='dropdown' aria-expanded='false'>Inserisci</a>
<ul class='dropdown-menu' aria-labelledby='dropdown01'>
";
}
foreach($inserimenti as $key => $value){
$relpath = getRelativePath($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'],PATH.'/'.$value);
$navbar.= "
<li><a class='dropdown-item' href='".$relpath."'>".$value."</a></li>
";
}
$navbar.="
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
";
}
return $navbar;
}
?>
In this function, I call another function that I copied from another guy that essentially, outputs the relative path if you give to it the absolute path of your current folder, and the absolute path of the folder that you want to go to. As follows
<?php
function getRelativePath($from, $to)
{
// some compatibility fixes for Windows paths
$from = is_dir($from) ? rtrim($from, '\/') . '/' : $from;
$to = is_dir($to) ? rtrim($to, '\/') . '/' : $to;
$from = str_replace('\\', '/', $from);
$to = str_replace('\\', '/', $to);
$from = explode('/', $from);
$to = explode('/', $to);
$relPath = $to;
foreach($from as $depth => $dir) {
// find first non-matching dir
if($dir === $to[$depth]) {
// ignore this directory
array_shift($relPath);
} else {
// get number of remaining dirs to $from
$remaining = count($from) - $depth;
if($remaining > 1) {
// add traversals up to first matching dir
$padLength = (count($relPath) + $remaining - 1) * -1;
$relPath = array_pad($relPath, $padLength, '..');
break;
} else {
$relPath[0] = './' . $relPath[0];
}
}
}
return implode('/', $relPath);
}
?>
The third solution is the one that I thought to be the best pick, basically I wanted to use the function chdir(), to change the working folder. Essentialy, when I'm into a file that is inside a folder i use the command chdir('..') in order to get into the main folder, and then I could use the relative paths as if I was out of that folder. Put apparently it doesen't work as planned at all, since it still doesn't work!! The relative paths inside the head and the navbar act as if they where into a folder, even if the working folder changed... I'm desperate at this point.
This is the page inside a folder, don't minnd the paths that I wrote, it's for debug, but as you can see, it doesn't load the css that is inside the head
And when I click on a link of the navbar, it acts like I'm into a folder
when I click home, it should go into index.php, but out of the folder, not inside src
The last thing that I send is the folder structure that I have, It's not complete, but at least you can see the interested part. Consider that the navbar and the head is into the view file, while the pages of the website are into src
File structure
If you need more details about the problem, or anything else, ask me. Thanks in advance for the help, if you have other solutions apart from solving the ones that I tried, it would be very nice, I'm sorry if I made some grammar mistakes or anything else, since my spaghetti Italian English could be a bit rusty.