PHP include file in webroot from file outside webroot - php

Question

I have a php file outside my webroot in which I want to include a file that is inside the webroot.
folder outside webroot
- > php file in which I want to include
webroot
- > file to include
So I have to go one directory up, but this doesnt work:
include('../webroot/file-to-include.php');
Include full path doesn't work either:
include('home/xx/xx/domains/mydomain/webroot/file-to-include.php');
How can I accomplish this?

Answer 1

Full path should be:
include('/home/xx/xx/domains/mydomain/webroot/file-to-include.php');
Or you should set the path like:
include(__DIR__ . '/../webroot/file-to-include.php'); // php version >= 5.3
include(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../webroot/file-to-include.php'); // php version < 5.3

Answer 2

Have this in a common file, shared by all your php sources outside the webroot:
<?php
define('PATH_TO_WEBROOT', '/home/xx/xx/domains/mydomain/webroot');
And then use the following to include files.
<?php
include (PATH_TO_WEBROOT.'/file-to-include.php');
If the location of your webroot changes, you will only have to change that once in your code base.
You can configure php to automatically prepend a given file to all your scripts, by setting the auto_prepend_file directive. That file could for instance contain the PATH_TO_WEBROOT constant, or require_once the file which contains it. This setting can be done on a per domain or per host basis (see the ini sections documentation).
Also, consider using the autoload feature if you are using classes extensively.

Answer 3

Try prepending a trailing slash to your full path, so it looks like
include('/home/xx/xx/domains/mydomain/webroot/file-to-include.php');
Otherwise, it will be interpreted as a relative path.
You could also try to change the dir into the webroot and see if this works - for debuggign purposes:
chdir("/home/xx/xx/domains/mydomain/webroot");
include "your_file.php";

Answer 4

I put the secured data in the file named conn.txt,
and then I used the following PHP command:
$DbInfoFile = "../conn.txt";

Answer 5

Fast forward to the current day (2021), an alternative method is to simply add the PHP include_path directive into your php.ini (or user.ini) to point to the includes folder, wherever it is (inside or outside the public root). This method blends the ease of changing one line of code in your project without touching the the PHP code at all. I have no idea if this works on a Windows box since I'm on CentOS.
Example: include_path = ".:/home/{acct-name}/{include-path}" (this would be one level up from public_html or whatever your public folder is called)
This blended approach allows you to simply invoke include 'file-to-include.php'; in your PHP code without going through the whole hassle of defining the root, while retaining the flexibility of changing the includes file by modifying only one line of code sitewide.
By the way, you can have multiple include locations. In that case, you can separate the two locations with a colon such as include_path = ".:/home/{acct-name}/{include-path-1}:/home/{acct-name}/{include-path-2}".

Answer 6

This should work
$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']/home/xx/xx/domains/mydomain/webroot/file-to-include.php
And make sure you have access to that level.