I have a little problem: I began a project as a subdirectory in a larger web project. Thus the web file path is something like /../myProject. But things have progressed and I've realized that this should be its own project. However, I'd like to be able to keep it where it (as a sub-directory) also make it a sub-domain wherein myProject becomes the root. (There is also the possibility that my project will be mirrored at a library site, where it will once be in a sub-directory).
The problem I having with all this is that in some cases I have html_partial files, (for instance for the header or footer). But the relative path of these partials differs depending on where you are in the file tree. I originally solved this by always going back to the root.
But now, you see, depending on where my project lives, the root will be different. What I'd like to do is declare myProject as the "application root" and then be able to use relative paths based on this application root rather the than the web root'. This way, all of the relative paths within 'myProject' will work no matter wheremyProject` lives in the web path.
Does PHP have a way to declare something like an Application Root if so, can you explain it me or direct me to its documentation. Thanks!
You could simply have a PHP file in your application root directory which would define the directory it is in as the application root. The file could be as simple as this:
<?php
define('APPLICATION_ROOT', __DIR__);
?>
You could then include this file as needed and base all of your file paths off of APPLICATION_ROOT. Note that APPLICATION_ROOT would not have a trailing slash as defined here (unless your file happened to be on in the machines root directory, which is unlikely).
I usually do something lile this in the front controller:
define('APPLICATION_PATH', realpath(__DIR__));
Then you can do things like:
set_include_path(APPLICATION_PATH . '/include');
Or:
$fp = fopen(APPLICATION_PATH . '/path/to/some/file', 'r');
If your app doesn't make use of a front controller, you could define an environment variable in your vhost config or .htaccess:
SetEnv APPLICATION_PATH /full/path/to/my/app
And then use:
getenv('APPLICATION_PATH')
Related
I am trying to connect a certain header file for different files in different folders. The problem is when having the same file included in for example /backend it will be easily called directly (as the index is also in /backend) but when calling it from backend/pages it doesnt recall the link structure anymore resulting in a deadlink.
I have tried every possible thing with ../ and different header files but that is a no go. Trying to find a solution such as the url below comes really close but yet I cannot seem to figure it.
Root path variable in a PHP project
What would be the best way to include the root automatically in an include or require for example.
If you're using a front controller (like an index.php file) that is starting and executing your entire application you can just set a constant there like define('APP_ROOT', __DIR__); and that'll set the root to be your front controller.
You can access your header file from anywhere then by doing APP_ROOT . "/includes/header.php"
If you are not using a front controller, then you can set this in each file. So for backend/pages it'd be something like ./../includes/header.php. or better still, use $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] to get the root of your application as provided by your web server vhosts config. (Apache of NGINX most likely)
$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/app/backend/includes/header.php" for example.
What would be the best way to include the root automatically in an include or require for example.
I'm not aware of any method to do that without modifying PHP itself and re-compiling from source, but I could be wrong. Your root path will always be stored in $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].
I think what you might want to look into is autoloading and more specifically PSR-4 and composer.
Is this, for example, a good idea?
require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/include.php');
If you have two virtual hosts on the same server, one for live and one for development, with different Apache DocumentRoots, this would avoid having to include absolute paths when the source of the include is unknown, and may be in any directory.
(Note: file paths in the following section are relative to the web root. They would in fact be like /var/www/app/core/init.php, where /var/www/app is the web root)
For instance: I have an /core/init.php which is called using relative paths from places all over the website (/file.php, /dir/file.php or /dir/dir/file.php).
This init.php then includes several function pages, in the fund directory, a subdir of /core (as in /core/func/userfunctions.php).
So, in init.php, I can use the $_SERVER method, because it breaks if I use a relative path and try to call functions from a page like /dir/file.php.
I can't see any problem with it, but in general what could go wrong?
I've seen cases where $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] is not set or is not what you would expect (i.e. not set in CLI or old IIS, or invalid in certain CGI setups).
For that reason you can use dirname(__FILE__) to obtain the path of the script that line is called in. You can then reference relative paths from there e.g.
include dirname(__FILE__) . '/../../other/file.php';
I go with the above method when the directory structure of the files is known and is not subject to change.
If DOCUMENT_ROOT is not available, the following is a suitable replacement:
substr($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'], 0, -strlen($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']));
You don't need to do this. PHP looks for the included file in the document root by default.
You can use set_include_path($new_include_path) to change this behaviour, or edit include_path in the php config file.
Also, from http://php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.server.php:
'DOCUMENT_ROOT'
The document root directory under which the current script is executing, as defined in the server's configuration file.
For example, if you use URL rewriting, you will be very happy when you find out that the includes in your /there/are/so/many/paths/in/the/url/of/this/ page are still working!
I have wamp setup on my windows box. Generally, when I bring a site down from the web, I create a folder inside my www folder for the site name. ex: c:\wamp\www\mysite. Once I have the folder, I copy down all the live files. The issue is that all the paths are then broken because my local folder isn't rooted.
What is the best way to setup paths so that if the site moves to a folder that isn't rooted, it will work easily?
I use a file (usually called something like config.php) to keep track of the root folder. My definitions (constants) look like this:
define('BASE_DIR','/wherever/whenever/');
define('LIB_DIR', BASE_DIR . 'lib/');
And then when you need to include a file
include LIB_DIR . 'aFile.php';
This would be something you do on a new site or if you have time to refactor your current site.
Create an include file, that has constants setup based upon whatever the root directory is... then in your code, use the constants you created to include files.
Also note, that when you are using directory "slashes", always use the build in constant DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR instead of hard coding it, this will allow you to go from WIndows to Linux seamlessly.
We use $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] to determine where we are in the filesystem and then simply append the folder name of our project to that. This works perfectly for us. You should always use a configuration.php where you define basic paths and URL's that may change when moving the project from one server/folder to another.
Option 1. Use <base href=""/> tag
Option 2. Use a config file, like #MattCan suggests
Option 3. Use a server environment variable, like #Bjorn suggests
Option 4. Create a virtual host on your apache, than you can create a domain who appoint exactly where are your app folder. Apache Doc here
I'm having problems with my include files. I don't seem to be able to figure out how to construct my URLs when I use require_once('somefile.php'). If I try to use an include file in more than one place where the directory structures are different, I get an error that the include file cannot be found.
In asp.net, to get my application root path, I can use ~/directory/file.aspx. The tild forward slash always knows that I am referencing from my website root and find the file no matter where the request comes from within my website. It always refers back to the root and looks for the file from there.
QUESTION: How can I get the root path of my site? How can I do this so I can reuse my include files from anywhere within my site? Do I have to use absolute paths in my URLs?
Thank you!
There is $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] that should have the root path to your web server.
Edit: If you look at most major php programs. When using the installer, you usually enter in the full path to the the application folder. The installer will just put that in a config file that is included in the entire application. One option is to use an auto prepend file to set the variable. another option is to just include_once() the config file on every page you need it. Last option I would suggest is to write you application using bootstrapping which is where you funnel all requests through one file (usually with url_rewrite). This allows you to easily set/include config variables in one spot and have them be available throughout all the scripts.
I usually store config.php file in ROOT directory, and in config.php I write:
define('ROOT_DIR', __DIR__);
And then just use ROOT_DIR constant in all other scripts.
Using $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] is not very good because:
It's not always matching ROOT_DIR
This variable is not available in CGI mode (e.x. if you run your scripts by CRON)
It's nice to be able to use the same code at the top of every script and know that your page will load properly, even if you are in a subdirectory. I use this, which relies on you knowing what your root directory is called (typically, 'htdocs' or 'public_html':
defined('SITEROOT') or define('SITEROOT', substr($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'], 0, strrpos($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'], 'public_html')) . 'public_html');
With SITEROOT defined consistently, you can then access a config file and/or page components without adapting paths on a script-by-script basis e.g. to a config file stored outside your root folder:
require_once SITEROOT . "/../config.php";
You should use the built in magic constants to find files. __FILE__ and __DIR__. If you are on PHP < 5.3 you should use dirname(__FILE__)
E.g.
require_once __DIR__.'/../../include_me.php';
$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] is not always guaranteed to return what you would expect.
Define it in a config file somewhere.
Assuming you're using an MVC style where everything gets routed through a single index.php then
realpath('.');
Will show you the path to the current working directory (i.e where index.php is)
So then you can define this as
define('PROJECT_ROOT', realpath('.'));
If it's not MVC and you need it to work for files in subfolders then you can just hard code it in a config file
define('PROJECT_ROOT', 'C:/wamp/www/mysite');
Then when including something you can do;
include PROJECT_ROOT . '/path/to/include.php';
You could alternativly set the base directory in your .htaccess file
SetEnv BASE_PATH C:/wamp/www/mysite/
Then in PHP you can reference it with $_SERVER['BASE_PATH']
Try this:
$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']
I am developing a web application. contents are:
root dir (/var/www/)
config.php
index.php
details.php
admin dir (/var/www/admin)
admin.php
I have included config.php file into index.php, details.php in root directory using require_once('config.php') as this file contains database passwords, styles, images directory paths..
how can i include that config files in my admin/admin.php file so that one config file can be used in anywhere(even in subdirectories) of my web application. Will it make any difference for the value of define('APP_BASE_PATH', dirname(__FILE__)); when same config file is used by all files in the web application.
if i am wrong somewhere then please get me right.
If your server properly configured, just
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/config.php";
anywhere
You have also 2 other possible ways.
a Front controller setup, where ALL user requests going into one file. And ths one going to include all others from their subdirectories. Personally I don't like it cause this front file become a mess. Though it's widely used.
I decided not to mention it because noone would use a hardcoded full path anyway.
Update after clarification in comments: You are looking for a way to include a central configuration file from anywhere in your project's folder structure.
#Col. Shrapnel shows one way, DOCUMENT_ROOT. It's the only way to use an "absolute" path from a nested folder structure. It has the limitation I describe above, but it's fine otherwise.
If you want maximum portability (i.e. the possibility to run the app with e.g. www.example.com/myapp/version_1 as its root directory), you would have to use relative references from within your folder structure to "climb down" to the config file, e.g. ../../config.php that will work reliably too, although be a bit cumbersome e.g. if you move a script to a different folder and you have to update the relative path.
you can use the same config file every time... using "/" will take you back to the root directory... so in admin/admin.php use this:
require_once("/config.php");
you can use "../" to take you up one directory eg:
require_once("../config.php");
was this what you were looking for?