Use "define" from another PHP file - php

I have file a.php with:
define('COLOR','blue');
and file b.php with:
include('/a.php');
echo COLOR;
... and "COLOR" is echoed. Is there something I need to do to carry the definition over?
File B is a WordPress functions file, which is possibly the cause - but I want to check first that the PHP is correct, having never used define() before... Thanks.

This should work just as you expect, however I think you have an issue on your include:
include('/a.php');
The leading slash anchors it to the root directory, which is almost certainly not what you want. I recommend using require instead so that you get an error if it fails:
require('a.php');

Related

How do I call a PHP function with GET parameters [duplicate]

So basically I have a file, lets say file1.php and it includes another file2.php.
file1.php contains a variable called $dateString that I have performed some operations on.
file2.php also has the same variable called $dateString however this variable is not being referenced within this include file even though $dateString was initialized prior to including file2.php.
So this is currently how file1.php looks like:
$dateString = 'some expression';
include 'file2.php';
file2.php is basically trying to echo out the variable that was initialized in file1.php
echo $dateString;
Everything else from file2.php is being called properly except that one variable.
Hopefully this makes sense. Is this possible in PHP? I have read in other places that you need to make the variables global and others have mentioned how you cant reference a variable from a parent file within a child file..any thoughts? Thanks in advance!
there is nothing magically happening when you use PHP's include(). the included file's code is basically just inserted at the point where you are including it - resulting in one bigger PHP file.
it doesn't really matter if the "parent" or in the "child" file - it's the position that matters since PHP will parse the single resulting file from top to bottom.
for example: if you set the variable in file A before including file B, file B will know about the variable. but if you set the variable in file A after including file B - file B doesn't know it.
With coding you should always try and test your own things before asking other people, butch like what #bub suggested in the comments.
Variables are global pretty much, you are able to include another file and use variables that are in file1.php in file2.php.
Otherwise, if you are using them in a function, I'd suggest using:
global $var;
the above should only be used in a function.

include not working for some reason

In my php code there is a section which needs to be retrieved from another php file.
I tried accomplishing this by:
include "teams.php?id=".$matchid;
and in the teams.php
$matchid = $_GET['id'];
echo "MATCH ID IS ".$matchid;
The problem is when i open teams.php?id=".$matchid directly it displays the match id fine
however the include doesn't work - i checked the source code of the original page - no code is being inserted. Is there a way to do what i want? I need to get php code from another file whilst passing 2 variables onto that file
Problem
The problem is related to what $_GET really contains:
An associative array of variables passed to the current script via the URL parameters. (...)
And you do not pass $matchid to the script through URL... And you should not in this case.
Solution
But there is a way. PHP does not separate global variables among files, so variables available in one file are available also in the one included:
in file no. 1:
// Assume $matchid is defined
include "teams.php";
in file no. 2 (the one included):
// No need to redefine $matchid - it was defined in the first file
echo "MATCH ID IS ".$matchid;
Also make sure you add <?php at the beginning of the file (the closing tag is not required). Otherwise it will be treated as text and not executed.
The problem is that you aren't loading that page in the browser when you call the include function, so the variable you are appending is not being processed as a URL query param. You are really just taking everything inside teams.php and dumping it into the other file (the one including teams.php) at that position.
If you want to effectively pass something into teams.php then just declare a variable before the include.
Check out http://php.net/manual/en/function.include.php and all will become clear.
That's not how include's work. When you include a file, it's code is executed as if it was written in the same file it's being included in. So teams.php will have the variable $matchid when the including file has that variable, no need to pass it in. Also the way you called the include was incorrect. Doing what you did causes php to look for a file in the current directory called 'teams.php?id=0' (replace 0 with the $matchid value). This file does not exist, 'teams.php' exists, not the URI. It is possible to specify a url by prefixing it with 'http://' however the result would work with the code in teams.php as it would expect to be able to read the php source.
You can do like this include "include "teams.php?id={$matchid}"; and
$matchid = filter_input(INPUT_GET, 'id', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
echo "MATCH ID IS {$matchid}";
If You will use this code, you will be safe from Injects too!
I hope you will apreciate this.

Include GET Variable in include(path)

I am trying to do an include(dirname(FILE), '/../file.php?variable=VAR'), but it is unable to find the location when I use the variable.
The directory is located one above the current one where the file is. Is it possible to pass the variables through the include?
You can't, though you won't need this at all, because $_GET's scope is global [i.e. accessible from every script you run].
Just to be clear:
include($path) searches the filesystem for a resource, then processes it.
http://somesite.com/index.php?key=value is a URL, whose part after the ? sign is called query.
No.
By using include, you include the source code from the file as it is. I guess you want to define a function inside the included file and call it to get the result.

Using a query-string in require_once in PHP

On one of my pages I have a require_once('../path/to/url/page.php'); which works with no problems. The moment I add a query string require_once('../path/to/url/page.php?var=test'); it won't include the file anymore. It's just blank. Anyone have any ideas of why? Can you not use a query-string in a require?
Thanks,
Ryan
By using require_once('../path/to/url/page.php?var=test');, php will not make a new request to page.php, it will actually search for the file named page.php?var=test and include it, because in unix, you are allowed to have such a filename. If you want to pass a variable to that script, just define it: $var="test" and it will be available for use in that script.
require loads a File (from a file path) to include. It does not request that file through apache (or other webserver), therefore you cannot pass query strings in this way.
If you need to pass data into the file, you can simply define a standard php variable.
Example
<?php $a_variable = "data"; require_once('../path/to/url/page.php'); ?>
Note, the variable must be set before the include/require is called, otherwise it won't be available.
All answes true. But most importantly: since $_GET is a global, it's present' in all included files as well, so there's absolutely no use in passing those parameters with the include.
require only accepts paths it would be pointless to add any request since it doesn't make any
it simple includes the required code into the current one

Storing the HTML output from a local PHP file into a string using file_get_contents

There is a header.php file and it contains some php codes that return HTML.
I know I can use require, include to echo the results, but what I want to do is to store its processed output string into a variable.
In a page, I used:
$headerHTML=file_get_contents('header.php');
Then I got the PHP code output rather than the processed HTML output.
I know adding http:// would help.
But I prefer to keep using relative path, how can I tell the function to treat the php file correctly?
Note: I would like to continue to use this statement file_get_contents rather than using ob_start() if possible.
I'd rather use require() wrapped inside ob_start() and ob_get_clean(). I am sure there is nothing wrong with this approach.
Don't use eval() - it's evil!
Use the relative local path an automatically map it to a absolute URL.
If URL wrappers are enabled and you want the output of header.php (and you don't want to keep session state) you could use $headerHTML=file_get_contents('http://yourdomain.tld/path/to/header.php');, though why you would want to do such a thing eludes me. Are you sure you're not trying to do something that could easily be solved by using templates and caching?
You can check http://in2.php.net/manual/en/function.eval.php#56641, hope it helps.

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