defined('SITE_ROOT') ? null - Error including file in Wordpress - php

Question

i am new on wordpress and i am trying to merge a website with wordpress as a theme which contains its own php files and folders " forms, includes, ajax and others .. "
i am using this to define and call a path on my files
defined('SITE_ROOT') ? null : define('SITE_ROOT', DS . 'home' .DS . 'sitename' . DS . 'public_html');
when i tried to do this in wordpress , it doesnt work , so i typed the full path like this
defined('SITE_ROOT') ? null : define('SITE_ROOT', DS . 'home' .DS . 'sitename' . DS . 'public_html' . DS . 'wordpress' . DS . 'wp-content' . DS . 'themes' . DS . 'citation');
it works locally! .. i tried to upload it online and i changed the path to
defined('SITE_ROOT') ? null : define('SITE_ROOT', 'c:' .DS . 'wamp' . DS . 'www' . DS . 'wordpress' . DS . 'wp-content' . DS . 'themes' . DS . 'citation');
but it doesnt work.
after searching i found an absolute path for wordpress folder , then i tried it locally and it works!
defined('SITE_ROOT') ? null : define('SITE_ROOT', ABSPATH . DS . 'wp-content' . DS . 'themes' . DS . 'citation');
i tried it online but it doesnt work again ..
any one can help ?

Answer 1

You may use this syntax:
defined("SITE_ROOT") || define("SITE_ROOT", "provide url here");
But this is not the solution, just a nice shortcut for defining a constant, anyways, you don't need to do this, WorrdPress has TEMPLATEPATH, instead and also WordPress provided so any helper functions for this kind of things and one of those:
// Prints http://www.example.com/home/wp/wp-content/themes/yourThrme
echo get_bloginfo('template_url');
Or use
// prints http://www.example.com/home/wp/wp-content/themes/yourThrme
bloginfo('template_url');
Also, worth checking these available functions. Check WordPress Integration with other Website.