inconsistent require_once behaviour in same folder - php

I have two files in the same folder, let's call them file1 and file2. Each of them use the same path to an include file called dbgeneral.php. They each then call the function admin_page_init() to check session information and bar access to non admins. One of the files works fine, however the other throws up an error on the require. If I copy paste the included file into the file which throws the error it works fine. If I include a copy of the file from a different folder it works fine. For some reason it refuses to find the file if it is in the same folder. I can use file_exists() and it returns positive. As far as I know there is no reason for this behaviour.
Folder Structure:
html/
/ dbgeneral.php
/ file1.php
/ file2.php
code:
require_once 'dbgeneral.php';
admin_page_init();
Also note that I tried using the superglobal $_SERVER to acquire the real absolute path. Also, this works on my local test server, but does not work on my web host.

include_once 'dbgeneral.php';
include_once 'file1.php';
include_once 'file2.php';
This will work. If it does not, it will show you an error as to why it did not work; require will not show you an error in the same fashion.

Related

How come my code works separately but not when I merge it with my controller?

I wrote this code in a test.php file.
<?php
include ($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"].'/MySite/protected/MyYouTube/google/src/Google/autoload.php');
require_once ($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"].'/MySite/protected/MyYouTube/google/src/Google/Client.php');
require_once ($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"].'/MySite/protected/MyYouTube/google/src/Google/Service/YouTube.php');
?>
If I go to this file like this: localhost/MySite/protected/MyYouTube/test.php it works, but if I copy the same code into my controller that is located under the same folder as test.php, I get this:
include(Google_Service.php): failed to open stream: No such file or
directory
There are no conflicts with the imports. In fact, the controller and view can be empty and still I get the same thing.
Apparently that happens when autoload.php is not actually loaded.
How is it possible that when the code is integrated into the website it throws this error?
This is what the path to my site looks like:
localhost/MySite/index.php/user/view It seems that the way I visit the file matters.
I tried several things. I tried importing the test.php into my view or my controller, and still I get the same error. I tried using Yii::app()->basePath and it gives the same problem.
The paths are correct, I have checked several times. How can I fix this?
The include path is actual server path, not site path, if you use / at the beginning, you are telling it to look in the server root.
If you know the absolute path in the server you can use it like /var/www/MySite or c:\mysiteif you don't know that then you use relative paths.
$_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] works well with PHP 5.3, not sure if below check your version. Try removing the '/' before the MySite part, as the variable already does it for you so it might be printing like localhost//MySite, although I'm not sure if that should or shouldn't work. ]
Also the autoload php should be loaded with a require_once function, not with the include. Good luck!

PHP - Going back directories

I've encountered something when trying to include/require a php script that's 2 directories back. It's not really a problem as I figured out a work around, however I'd love an explanation for what's happening.
Here's the file structure:
appCode
db.php (File I'm trying to include)
studentManagement
index.php
dep
getData.php (File I'm trying to include db.php into)
I want to include appCode/db.php in studentManagement/dep/getData.php.
getdata.php is executed with ajax from index.php
When I use:
require_once("../../appCode/db.php");
It doesn't work.
The only way it works is it I change directory first:
chdir("../");
require_once("../appCode/db.php");
Why won't the first method work? I've also tried using include instead of require but it's the same. I'm testing it on mamp 3.0.4.
Any help appreciated!!
that is because when you require(),include() and their variants it's always relative to the initial php file called (in your case index.php)
in fact chdir has nothing to do with it, and this:
require_once("../appCode/db.php");
is the right way to call it.
always place your mental self (!) as if you were index.php when you require files and work with directories. your "active directory" is the one where index.php is placed. you can always verify this current working directory with getcwd() http://php.net/manual/en/function.getcwd.php
If you know your entire directory all the way from root you can use:
http://php.net/manual/en/function.set-include-path.php
Now instead of using relative paths you can always include or require files starting at your include path.
You could put this in getData.php:
set_include_path ('/homepages/www/2/yourworkingpath');//Use your own directory
require_once 'appCode/db.php';
You could also do the same thing in your other files if you need to include and it will always use your include path so you don't have to keep figuring out which directory to change to. Hopefully this helps a bit.

php require command error

I have a home.php file which references fileA using php require command which is in the same folder i.e. localhost. the code is:
<?php // /localhost/home.php
require ('/fileA.php');
?>
fileA references another file in its code fileB.
so far its workin properly
when i access fileC.php
i reference fileA using
<?php // /localhost/A/B/fileC.php
require ('../../fileA.php');
?>
the code is able to acquire fileA but only works properly when fileB is in the same folder as fileC else produces a 404 error.I am not able to understand why is this happening since fileB is called by fileA.
thanks.
When using relative file paths, keep in mind that they are relative to your current working directory, not to file that performs inclusion. current working directory is set automatically on the first request (A/B in your case).
Some simple solutions: always use dirname(__FILE__) before including file, this way it be relative to the file the is in:
<?php
require(dirname(__FILE__)."/FileA.php");
require(dirname(__FILE__)."/../../FileB.php");

Why would I use dirname(__FILE__) in an include or include_once statement?

I have seen this:
<?php
include( dirname(__FILE__) . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'my_file.php');
?>
Why would I ever need to do this? Why would I go to the trouble of getting the dirname and then concatenating that with a directory separator, and a new filename?
Is the code above not equivalent to this:
<?php
include( 'my_file.php' );
?>
??
The PHP doc says,
Files are included based on the file path given or, if none is given, the include_path specified. If the file isn't found in the include_path, include() will finally check in the calling script's own directory and the current working directory before failing. The include() construct will emit a warning if it cannot find a file; this is different behavior from require(), which will emit a fatal error.
Let's say I have a (fake) directory structure like:
.../root/
/app
bootstrap.php
/scripts
something/
somescript.php
/public
index.php
Now assume that bootstrap.php has some code included for setting up database connections or some other kind of boostrapping stuff.
Assume you want to include a file in boostrap.php's folder called init.php. Now, to avoid scanning the entire include path with include 'init.php', you could use include './init.php'.
There's a problem though. That ./ will be relative to the script that included bootstrap.php, not bootstrap.php. (Technically speaking, it will be relative to the working directory.)
dirname(__FILE__) allows you to get an absolute path (and thus avoid an include path search) without relying on the working directory being the directory in which bootstrap.php resides.
(Note: since PHP 5.3, you can use __DIR__ in place of dirname(__FILE__).)
Now, why not just use include 'init.php';?
As odd as it is at first though, . is not guaranteed to be in the include path. Sometimes to avoid useless stat()'s people remove it from the include path when they are rarely include files in the same directory (why search the current directory when you know includes are never going to be there?).
Note: About half of this answer is address in a rather old post: What's better of require(dirname(__FILE__).'/'.'myParent.php') than just require('myParent.php')?
I might have even a simpler explanation to this question compared to the accepted answer so I'm going to give it a go: Assume this is the structure of the files and directories of a project:
Project root directory:
file1.php
file3.php
dir1/
file2.php
(dir1 is a directory and file2.php is inside it)
And this is the content of each of the three files above:
//file1.php:
<?php include "dir1/file2.php"
//file2.php:
<?php include "../file3.php"
//file3.php:
<?php echo "Hello, Test!";
Now run file1.php and try to guess what should happen. You might expect to see "Hello, Test!", however, it won't be shown! What you'll get instead will be an error indicating that the file you have requested(file3.php) does not exist!
The reason is that, inside file1.php when you include file2.php, the content of it is getting copied and then pasted back directly into file1.php which is inside the root directory, thus this part "../file3.php" runs from the root directory and thus goes one directory up the root! (and obviously it won't find the file3.php).
Now, what should we do ?!
Relative paths of course have the problem above, so we have to use absolute paths. However, absolute paths have also one problem. If you (for example) copy the root folder (containing your whole project) and paste it in anywhere else on your computer, the paths will be invalid from that point on! And that'll be a REAL MESS!
So we kind of need paths that are both absolute and dynamic(Each file dynamically finds the absolute path of itself wherever we place it)!
The way we do that is by getting help from PHP, and dirname() is the function to go for, which gives the absolute path to the directory in which a file exists in. And each file name could also be easily accessed using the __FILE__ constant. So dirname(__FILE__) would easily give you the absolute (while dynamic!) path to the file we're typing in the above code. Now move your whole project to a new place, or even a new system, and tada! it works!
So now if we turn the project above to this:
//file1.php:
<?php include(dirname(__FILE__)."/dir1/file2.php");
//file2.php:
<?php include(dirname(__FILE__)."/../file3.php");
//file3.php:
<?php echo "Hello, Test!";
if you run it, you'll see the almighty Hello, Test!! (hopefully, if you've not done anything else wrong).
It's also worth mentioning that from PHP5, a nicer way(with regards to readability and preventing eye boilage!) has been provided by PHP as well which is the constant __DIR__ which does exactly the same thing as dirname(__FILE__)!
Hope that helps.
I used this below if this is what you are thinking. It it worked well for me.
<?php
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/head_lib.php";
?>
What I was trying to do was pulla file called /head_lib.php from the root folder. It would not pull anything to build the webpage. The header, footer and other key features in sub directories would never show up. Until I did above it worked like a champ.
If you want code is running on multiple servers with different environments,then we have need
to use dirname(FILE) in an include or include_once statement.
reason is follows.
1. Do not give absolute path to include files on your server.
2. Dynamically calculate the full path like absolute path.
Use a combination of dirname(FILE) and subsequent calls to itself until you reach to the home of your '/myfile.php'.
Then attach this variable that contains the path to your included files.

How to include file from another directory

In the root (www) I have two folders.
In the first folder, "folder1", I put a file called register.php.
In the next folder, "folder2", I put files called header.php and footer.php.
I need to include the header and footer files from folder2 in the register.php file.
How can i do this? I tried to use this include ../folder2/header.php
..but it does not work
On some configurations, adding ./ (current dir) does the trick like this:
include './../folder2/header.php';
Alternatively, you can specify in terms of document root:
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . 'folder2/header.php';
<?php include( $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . 'folder2/header.php' ); ?>
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/folder2/header.php';
would work from any directory of the site
it is called absolute path and it's the only reliable way to address a file
However, in real it should be something like
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/cfg.php';
// some code
include $TPL_HEADER;
using a variable, previously defined in cfg.php
However, it may fail too. Because you can be just wrong about these paths
And here goes your main problem:
but it does not work
There is no such thing as "it does not work"
There is always a comprehensive error message that tells you what exactly doesn't work and what it does instead. You didn't read it yourself, and you didn't post it here to let us show you a correct path out of these error messages.
include files should generally be kept outside of the server root.
lets say your setup is;
www/website1
and
www/includes
Then you php.ini file, or .htaccess file should stipulate that
include_path=www/includes
then from any of your files, in any directory, no matter how far down the trees they go you simply do:
include 'myfile.php';
where myfile.php is at www/includes/myfile.php
Then you can stop worrying about these issues
include dirname(__FILE__).'/../folder2/header.php';
Try This it is work in my case
<?php require_once __DIR__."/../filename.php";?>
As the PHP manual states here $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] is "The document root directory under which the current script is executing, as defined in the server's configuration file." For this example, $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] will work just fine but. . . By using the new "magic constants" provided in >= PHP 5.3, we can make this code a little safer.
Put your includes in a subfolder, and use the magic constant DIR to make a reference to the included files. DIR returns the directory of the currently executing php file. By using this, you can move your folder containing all your includes anywhere you like in your directory structure, and not need to worry if your includes will still work.

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