There is no way on denying that PHP is based on includes. Even PSR4 is responsible for including files from folders so, so far away.
Sometimes it become very difficult to debug code, mainly on third party code, don't matter how good it was written.
With PHP being so dynamic in function calling it is very easy to get lost. And the URL don't help much in software like MOODLE.
Is there a way to tell PHP to error_log every file that was loaded in a request? So I can know the files i need to debug.
I don't think using the PHP magic constants will help much.
get_included_files()
This function returns all required and included file names as array.
Related
I've purchased an open-source website, and need to do some modifications which are mainly related to "appearance".
Problem is I can't discover which files generate the output, figured they must be in a "layouts" folder or something, and didn't find anything.
Is there a way in PHP to help me do this and maybe be useful in debugging the website later on?
Thanks.
This might be a silly question but it really annoys me. I began to program in Sublime Text 2 a short while ago, and really love it. One thing I just don't know how to set up is a way to include scripts that has to be included differently on the server.
On the server I have an include library, where I save all the "secure" files. This directory is placed outside of root, but using Apache, the PHP script can access the scripts simply by writing include "filename.php";. I really love this feature but it prevents me from receiving documentation and list over functions and variables. If I want to receive these informations, I have to include my classes/files like this: include "../path/filename.php". I could do this, but then it won't work on the server.
I know this is silly, but I really think it is to much work to comment out a path variable every time I have to upload, for test and then uncomment it again when writing code. I hope you understand what I am trying to achieve, and please tell me if there is an easy solution. I mentioned Sublime Text 2 because I know there is a lot og packages (plugins) and perhaps somebody have thought about a plugin that automatically checks every include/require command and if no path is defined, it checks whether or not it is in the local folder and again if not, it checks a ".settings" file for a custom path I manually have defined. That would be nice :D
http://php.net/manual/en/function.set-include-path.php set_include_path is what you need. YOu can set it either in php.ini or in php
I'm in the middle of making my own custom forum system software. Much like phpbb, mybb, vbulletin, etc. except it's obviously quite less advanced. It's just a personal project for myself and I've run into some problems since I've never had to develop something that can be repackaged for others.
The file structure is as follows:
So, config.php is the end all be all of including files. It has the database connection information, it instantiates my database class as well, and none of the function files require/include any files since they'll always be accessed where config.php is required.
HERE'S THe QUESTION!
However I'm running into simple but very annoying problems, for example I call a function in config.php towards the top that checks the users cookies values and makes sure they all belong to the same user, and if not it deletes the cookies. However, it has to be after the database files require. And things like, a variable declared in config.php isn't always accessible, so sometimes I have to declare it in the header files.
Seems like it's not much of a question, but I guess it's just asking for how I can include/require in general without running into issues.
As a general note, most people don't mix config variables and code in one file. If you look at popular open source packages like Wordpress, Config.php just has config variables set. No code.
If you're using certain functions in anything more than a "one off" situation, you may want to consider putting them into your main class - that way they're available as needed.
#James is right, separate your config file. You can include it inside an "application.php" required file (so it's available globally).
I have run into a situation where I absolutely needed HTTP Header information prior to page build. Though it seemed a little backward, the solution was to call that file first, then include the application.php file. Checking for a cookie should be fine.
In another situation, #include('myStubbonPricing.php') was the answer. I'm not an advocate of error suppression, but in my case it only outputted a shipping rate (if the zip code was entered). To my defense !isset and the like would not fix the problem due to an XML request/response scenario.
I have a series of web sites all hosted on the same server with different domains. I want to host some common PHP scrips and then be able to call these from the other domains.
Im am a bit fresh with my php so pls excuse code attempts - I have tried iterations of the following which may try and help you understand what I am aiming for!
from within php tags ...
include('http://www.mydomain/common_include.php?show_section=$section');
$show_section = $_GET['show_section'];
include('http://www.mydomain/common_include.php');//Then $show_section would be available to the included file/cod
Finally I have tried pulling in the include which contains a function then trying to run that include from the parent script.
I would much prefer to keep this PHP
orientated rather than getting
involved with the server (file
systems etc (but I can change
permissions etc)
I can but would prefer not to just upload the same library to each of the domains separately
I understand PHP is run on the server hence maybe problematic to include scripts across onto another server.
Thanks in advance.
#
EDIT
OK OK - I get that its bad practice so will not do it....THANKS VERY MUCH FOR THE QUICK ANSWERS.
However is there any other recommendations of how to esentially show this basic php app on all of the sites with out haveing to add the files to the root of each site? Just to prevent massive script duplication...(thinking out loud call the scripts in from a db or anyother soloutions)
Again thanks for your assistance
That would be a huge security risk if you could just include remote PHP files to your own projects. The PHP gets parsed before the server sends it to you so cross-domain includes would only contain the output the script generates. The only way to include PHP files so that they can be executed is via local filesystem.
If you look at PHP.net's documentation about include, you can find this:
If "URL fopen wrappers" are enabled in PHP (which they are in the default configuration), you can specify the file to be included using a URL (via HTTP or other supported wrapper - see List of Supported Protocols/Wrappers for a list of protocols) instead of a local pathname. If the target server interprets the target file as PHP code, variables may be passed to the included file using a URL request string as used with HTTP GET. This is not strictly speaking the same thing as including the file and having it inherit the parent file's variable scope; the script is actually being run on the remote server and the result is then being included into the local script.
Which pretty much explains the whole thing.
The root of the original question seemed to be the poster's concern about using a PHP script or plugin on multiple sites and then having an onerous task each time it needs to be updated. While trying to include PHP files across sites is a bad idea, it is a better plan to structure your script to be as self contained as possible. Keep the entire plugin contained in one directory.... and ensure your function calls to utilize it are as well formed as possible - clean, well named functions, uniform naming conventions and a well thought out plan for what parameters each function needs. Avoid using global variables.
Ideally you should then have quite an easy time each time you need to update the plugin/script in all locations. You can even set up an automated process that will upload the new directory containing the plugin to each site replacing the old one. And the function calls within your code should rarely if ever change.
If your script is big enough you might implement an automatic update process like the more recent versions of Wordpress use. Click a button and it updates itself. In the past, updating a dozen sites running Wordpress (as an example) was a massive pain.
That is very bad practice.
Actually you're including not PHP but just HTML code.
Include files, not urls. It is possible for the same server.
Just use absolute path to these files.
Apart from the fact that it's a bad practice you should first check if include allows URLs if you really want to do that.
If however all the sites that need to use the script, you could put the script somewhere in a directory accessible by the user that executes php and add that dir to the php.ini include_path property (can also be done at runtime)
(Or you could create a php extension and load it as extension)
If you have root rights on that server, you could just use absolute path from filesystem root, but most hostings won't let you do this.
Is there a simple way to find the file path to where a function is defined? I currently use dreamweavers FIND in an entire directory. Would be nice to have something that doesn't require downloading the entire site tho.
Any suggestions?
Personally I use an IDE like Netbeans or Eclipse PDT. In the case of Netbeans you can ctrl-click on a function and it'll take you to the definition. Sometimes there is a choice in which case it'll make you select one.
But its generally bad form to reuse a function name within your code in different files. It can lead to hard-to-find bugs because it's hard for any program to figure out exactly which one function is actually getting called since source files can be included dynamically.
Would be nice to have something that doesnt require downloading the entire site tho.
I hope this doesn't mean that you're modifying the site remotely.
Have a local working copy, make the changes, test them locally, then upload the changes.
A simple combo of vim and ctags makes the "go to definition" task a piece of cake.
You can't search for something (and expect to find it) unless you have a copy of all the files it might be in.
A number of IDEs have the ability to click and go from a use of a variable or function to its definition. If not that, then a multi-file searching tool within your editor, or something from a command line (such as ack) that is a little more specialised at searching source code can help. Good naming conventions can also help a lot for consistency.
It's not the question, but why don't you have a copy of the site locally - and while you are at it, keep it in version control as well?
I'd sure like this get_functionPath() ability and anyone that has extensively had to work on other people's code would probably find it incredibly useful. We have function_exists, if that could simply return the file the function is defined in for user defined functions it would save a TON of trouble. No, not all of us use IDEs, and yes some of us have been doing this long enough to code on the production machine. Test boxes and sandboxes are for rookies.
One trick is to purposely trigger an error in the function you are trying to locate. Can save a ton of time.
You'd need to use some kind of tool that could build an index on a remote filesystem that you could download and perform local lookup and search upon. I don't know of anything that can do this and a few moments with Google didn't turn up anything.
Maybe a good idea for an open source project? hinthint
so there is no function that would do this? Something like get_class() which would output the parent class but in the case the file path on the server...