anyone know how to create php class root directory just like wordpress does?
it doenst have to be like wordpress.
ive got some folders
*include:
-header.php
-footer.php
*images
*forms
-index.php
the problem is when i use php header the image doesnt link up properly, is there anyway to solve it.
i read some article to use $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']. and how do i apply it globally?
You have to define an include_path. The include_path works like $PATH on Windows and UNIX. When you ask for a file (with require, or include), PHP will try to find it in the current directory. If it's not found, then will start trying with the directories defined in include_path.
include_path is a PHP.ini environment variable, so you can modify it in your main php.ini file, in your .htaccess using php_value, or runtime using set_inclue_path.
When you've added, for example, the class folder, then you can run require('class/foo.php'); in any of your project's files, and it'll find your global class folder, only if you don't have another class folder there.
Good luck!
Not sure it has much to do with what you are looking for, but just in case it helps: In most websites I do from scratch I include the necessary php files in different folders (depending on language, section, etc) with a simple code. From the URL, I get the language and the section and page variables:
$root = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];
$include_string = ":/$root:/$root/$lang:/$root/$lang/$section:/$root/$lang/$section/$page";
ini_set("include_path", ".:../:$include_string");
My code is a bit more complex because there are some more variables and shared folders, but it's just the same thing with some loops and conditionals.
The least weird way i've managed to do it:
Add your app root (often $_SERVER[DOCUMENT_ROOT]) to the include_path (easily done in php.ini, apache config, or at runtime with set_include_path)
define an __autoload function to require "classes/{$classname}.class.php"
You may need to make the files' names lower case; i forget whether __autoload gets passed the class name as lower case, but i seem to remember issues with that.
$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] will work globally.
$_SERVER is one of PHP's superglobals.
Related
I've been writing:
include('a.php')
include('b.php')
etc. in my script to include to use functions a() and b(). It gets pretty tedious. Is there a way to set a path of a directory and have multiple files there be accessible by a script?
I tried this in my script:
set_include_path('.;C:\xampp\htdocs\myfunctionfolder');
And I set an environmental variable PATH to have this older in there.
I also in modified php.ini to include
include_path = ".;\xampp\php\PEAR;\xampp\htdocs\myfunctionfolder"
If I have many files in there, how do I access these files without having to include each individually? Setting the environmental variable definitely works in the command prompt.
Do I need to do something else for .php files to be accessible collectively under a directory?
Common practice is to have a "common.php" or "includes.php" file that includes the include/include_once calls (for the sake of simplicity). e.g.
root
[lib]
a.php
b.php
includes.php
index.php
Then includes.php contains:
<?php
include_once('a.php');
include_once('b.php');
?>
Then in any script it's a matter of including the includes.php file.
However, to answer your original question, you can only include one file at a time, per call. You can use something like opendir and readdir to iterate over all files in a specific directory and include them as found (automated so-to-speak) or write out each include yourself based on the files you're creating.
Also, all setting the include path does is set a directory to look in when an include call is made. It's not a directory where the files should automatically be loaded (which is the impression I get from your post).
Setting the include_path will not include every file in that directory, it only adds that directory to the list PHP will search when including a file.
Specifies a list of directories where the require(), include(), fopen(), file(), readfile() and file_get_contents() functions look for files.
Source
This would simplify including files in a deep structure or in a completely different section of the filesystem.
include('/var/somewhere/else/foo.php');
With /var/somewhere/else/ added to the php.ini include_path could become
include('foo.php');
Additionally, as others pointed out, there are common practices but you could look into OOPHP and autoloading classes. This will not work for functions that I know of.
Many developers writing object-oriented applications create one PHP source file per-class definition. One of the biggest annoyances is having to write a long list of needed includes at the beginning of each script (one for each class).
In PHP 5, this is no longer necessary. You may define an __autoload function which is automatically called in case you are trying to use a class/interface which hasn't been defined yet. By calling this function the scripting engine is given a last chance to load the class before PHP fails with an error.
PHP's parser is pretty efficient - you'll waste a lot more time loading a ton of individual files instead of one (or a few) more monolithic files. However, if you insist on keeping things segregated like that, you CAN create meta-include files to load sets of individual files, so you'd only include the one single meta-include file, and it does the rest for you:
meta.php:
include('a.php');
include('p.php');
...
include('z.php');
And then you simply do:
<?php
include('meta.php');
in your scripts and you've got all the individual ones loaded for you.
I have a function like this in most of my projects:
function appendToIncludePath($path)
{
ini_set('include_path', ini_get('include_path') . PATH_SEPARATOR . BASE_DIR . $path . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR);
}
see this question:
How to include() all PHP files from a directory?
Also, in terms of best practices, you can include multiple functions in the same file if they are at all related, and I would also suggest having more descriptive names of your functions and files. For example, if your a() and b() functions both related to validation for example, name your file validation.php and put both functions in there and try to rename them to something that is related to what they do. This will allow you to remember what they do when you start piling up a huge list of functions ;)
include __DIR__ . '/../folder1/folder2/folder3/Target.php';
include __DIR__ . '/../folder1/folder2/Target.php';
It helps you go to any path.
Download latest PHP zip and extract to C drive then download composer and install it, during installation it ask for PHP path so just select extracted PHP path.
As follow below step.
Go to Computer.
Select Advance System Settings.
From system properties select Environmental Varaibles.
In Environmental Varaibles add Path in User Variable for PCNAME
In Environmental Varaibles add Path in System Variables.
Hit OK.
Restart PC.
Win + R type cmd.
type command php -v.
Vola you good to go.
PHP
http://php.net/downloads.php
Composer
https://getcomposer.org/download/
I have to deal with complex directories hierarchy, and I am facing the common trouble of include path with PHP.
I have searched the web but I haven't found anything that fit my needs.
For instance, I was using a simple directory hierarchy that never fail: no php script in the site root, only one level of subdirectory, all php script in this sublevel. To include a php file, I was simply using relative path, always starting with '../' just like in this example:
include( '../my_subdirectory/my_script.php' ) ;
This way, I can be sure to locate the file I want...
But there is some drawback:
I can't have more than one level of subdirectory (reason: when a file include a file that include another file, the path used to include the third file is not relative to the path of second file file, but relative to the path of the very first file).
Coming from a C++ background (using handmade makefile), I have always thought it was a dirty way to do it
So I want a way to include file directly from the site root (not the $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] because I may have independant website into subdirectory of this document_root).
I want it to be:
centralized in only one file
portable from a server to another without any change (if possible)
keep php's include simple and elegant, no complex string concat, this should work this way: "include('directory_a/directory_b/my_php_script.php')"
Using a .htaccess that contains:
php_value include_path "/var/www/my_website/"
... do it well except that the path is hardcoded into the .htaccess, annoying for some reason: in my case, I have prod, dev and testing version of the website, and the .htaccess is versionned (it contains many others things). If possible, I want an .htaccess that work everywhere. Something that set the include_path to the path of this current .htaccess would be fine.
So... What is the best practice, dealing with include() and complex directory hierarchy in PHP ?
A good way is to use an absolute path like this :
Php < 5.3 :
include(dirname(__FILE__) . '/yourfile.php');
Php 5.3 :
include(__DIR__. '/yourfile.php');
The __FILE__ constant will always point to the absolute path to the current file.
If you do this in a script in your site root:
define("ROOT_DIRECTORY", dirname(__FILE__));
and include it in every script, you can easily do relative includes:
include ROOT_DIRECTORY."/dir1/dir2/dir3/index.php";
if what you are including are PHP class structures, you may also want to look into Autoloading which is a great feature.
I think the best way to handle this, is to set an "SetEnv directive" in your vhost or httpd.conf for each environment.
httpd.conf:
SetEnv INCLUDES_DIR /var/www/my_website/
In every PHP file, you can use the following $_SERVER variable
include_once($_SERVER['INCLUDES_DIR'].'/my_subdirectory/my_script.php');
I'm having difficulty with paths in a cms system I'm attempting to build, I've basically got a folder with my header.php and footer.php files inside.
These are included in index.php and work fine. But then when I attempt to use the same includes in a file within my admin sub directory, the images and CSS are broken, obviously because the relative path is now wrong.
So my question is, how can I overcome this?
After reading some of the other questions on here and various other sources, I think absolute paths are the way forward, but I've always used relative paths, so the various concepts of using config files to specify an absolute path are confusing me.
I usually manage to work things out for myself, but it's been a long day and Im stumped!
i usualy have a file called config in my application root and in it i define a constant for base path and a few others:
define('APP_BASE_PATH', dirname(__FILE__));
define('APP_FUNCTIONS_PATH', APP_BASE_PATH . '/functions');
and i include my files like
include (APP_BASE_PATH . 'includes/another_file.php');
include (APP_FUNCTIONS_PATH . '/function_file.php');
that way i can place my aplication in whatever directory, plus i can move files around without to much worries.
also using full path makes the include faster
I prefer setting the environment variables (in Apache, using .htaccess or the .conf). This way you can move all your files freely anywhere in webroot and it will have access to those variables.
SetEnv lib /library/folder/
SetEnv public /my/web/root/
SetEnv environ DEVELOPMENT
Also you can use the variable named 'environ' mentioned in the above .htaccess snippet to include a server specific file as config file in all of your scripts and set various variables there.
require_once getenv('lib')."Configs/Config_".getenv('environ').".php";
Enjoy your freedom!
or...
include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] .'/includes/header.php');
Relative and absolute paths in PHP are a bit fragile because they depend not just on the current directory of the including file, but also the current working directory.
So you need a two-part solution.
Firstly, you need a redirector. Basically, this is an include file that serves as a single-point-of-call for all other pages. Its job is to go and include the rest of your infrastructure. All your pages call this redirector and only this redirector (but you can chain them).
This redirector now does
include_once dirname(__FILE__).'/include/include.php';
This lets you change your infrastructure's include file, or location and all you have to update is one file. The dirname() call solves all the relative and absolute problems and has it look for the next step relative to itself. And by definition this only changes when you change it, so it will always work.
The second part is a custom includer so you can call content by name with a function and it goes and gets the right file. Burying this in your infrastructure directory is where is goes. It then becomes a black-box that the pages outside this area call without knowing and without needing to know how it works or where it is. That removes the need for path constants to include page fragments because you have one place doing it all for you.
I have had this similar issue and posted this query in this link in SO. The URL is : Issue with PHP include with global path.
While working on the solutions given by people and looking at various threads (including this one - which I had quoted in my solution at the bottom section of my post), I had a way! I had posted the solution as well. It may help some one who is facing a similar issue.
In HTML, I can find a file starting from the web server's root folder by beginning the filepath with "/". Like:
/images/some_image.jpg
I can put that path in any file in any subdirectory, and it will point to the right image.
With PHP, I tried something similar:
include("/includes/header.php");
...but that doesn't work.
I think that that this page is saying that I can set include_path once and after that, it will be assumed. But I don't quite get the syntax. Both examples start with a period, and it says:
Using a . in the include path allows for relative includes as it means the current directory.
Relative includes are exactly what I don't want.
How do I make sure that all my includes point to the root/includes folder? (Bonus: what if I want to place that folder outside the public directory?)
Clarification
My development files are currently being served by XAMPP/Apache. Does that affect the absolute path? (I'm not sure yet what the production server will be.)
Update
I don't know what my problem was here. The include_path thing I referenced above was exactly what I was looking for, and the syntax isn't really confusing. I just tried it and it works great.
One thing that occurs to me is that some people may have thought that "/some/path" was an "absolute path" because they assumed the OS was Linux. This server is Windows, so an absolute path would have to start with the drive name.
Anyway, problem solved! :)
What I do is put a config.php file in my root directory. This file is included by all PHP files in my project. In that config.php file, I then do the following;
define( 'ROOT_DIR', dirname(__FILE__) );
Then in all files, I know what the root of my project is and can do stuff like this
require_once( ROOT_DIR.'/include/functions.php' );
Sorry, no bonus points for getting outside of the public directory ;) This also has the unfortunate side affect that you still need a relative path for finding config.php, but it makes the rest of your includes much easier.
One strategy
I don't know if this is the best way, but it has worked for me.
$root = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];
include($root."/path/to/file.php");
The include_path setting works like $PATH in unix (there is a similar setting in Windows too).It contains multiple directory names, seperated by colons (:). When you include or require a file, these directories are searched in order, until a match is found or all directories are searched.
So, to make sure that your application always includes from your path if the file exists there, simply put your include dir first in the list of directories.
ini_set("include_path", "/your_include_path:".ini_get("include_path"));
This way, your include directory is searched first, and then the original search path (by default the current directory, and then PEAR). If you have no problem modifying include_path, then this is the solution for you.
There is nothing in include/require that prohibits you from using absolute an path.
so your example
include('/includes/header.php');
should work just fine. Assuming the path and file are corect and have the correct permissions set.
(and thereby allow you to include whatever file you like, in- or outside your document root)
This behaviour is however considered to be a possible security risk. Therefore, the system administrator can set the open_basedir directive.
This directive configures where you can include/require your files from and it might just be your problem.
Some control panels (plesk for example) set this directive to be the same as the document root by default.
as for the '.' syntax:
/home/username/public_html <- absolute path
public_html <- relative path
./public_html <- same as the path above
../username/public_html <- another relative path
However, I usually use a slightly different option:
require_once(__DIR__ . '/Factories/ViewFactory.php');
With this edition, you specify an absolute path, relative to the file that contains the require_once() statement.
Another option is to create a file in the $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] directory with the definition of your absolute path.
For example, if your $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] directory is
C:\wamp\www\
create a file (i.e. my_paths.php) containing this
<?php if(!defined('MY_ABS_PATH')) define('MY_ABS_PATH',$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'MyProyect/')
Now you only need to include in every file inside your MyProyect folder this file (my_paths.php), so you can user MY_ABS_PATH as an absolute path for MyProject.
Not directly answering your question but something to remember:
When using includes with allow_url_include on in your ini beware that, when accessing sessions from included files, if from a script you include one file using an absolute file reference and then include a second file from on your local server using a url file reference that they have different variable scope and the same session will not be seen from both included files. The original session won't be seen from the url included file.
from: http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.include.php#84052
hey all...i had a similar problem with my cms system.
i needed a hard path for some security aspects.
think the best way is like rob wrote. for quick an dirty coding
think this works also..:-)
<?php
$path = getcwd();
$myfile = "/test.inc.php";
/*
getcwd () points to:
/usr/srv/apache/htdocs/myworkingdir (as example)
echo ($path.$myfile);
would return...
/usr/srv/apache/htdocs/myworkingdir/test.inc.php
access outside your working directory is not allowed.
*/
includ_once ($path.$myfile);
//some code
?>
nice day
strtok
I follow Wordpress's example on this one. I go and define a root path, normally the document root, and then go define a bunch of other path's along with that (one for each of my class dirs. IE: database, users, html, etc). Often I will define the root path manually instead of relying on a server variable.
Example
if($_SERVER['SERVERNAME'] == "localhost")
{
define("ABS_PATH", "/path/to/upper/most/directory"); // Manual
}
else
{
define("ABS_PATH, dirname(__FILE__));
// This defines the path as the directory of the containing file, normally a config.php
}
// define other paths...
include(ABS_PATH."/mystuff.php");
Thanks - this is one of 2 links that com up if you google for php apache windows absolute path.
As a newbie to intermed PHP developer I didnt understand why absolute paths on apache windopws systems would be c:\xampp\htdocs (apache document root - XAMPP default) instead of /
thus if in http//localhost/myapp/subfolder1/subfolder2/myfile.php I wanted to include a file from http//localhost/myapp
I would need to specify it as:
include("c:\xampp\htdocs\myapp\includeme.php")
or
include("../../includeme.php")
AND NOT
include("/myapp/includeme.php")
I've come up with a single line of code to set at top of my every php script as to compensate:
<?php if(!$root) for($i=count(explode("/",$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]));$i>2;$i--) $root .= "../"; ?>
By this building $root to bee "../" steps up in hierarchy from wherever the file is placed.
Whenever I want to include with an absolut path the line will be:
<?php include($root."some/include/directory/file.php"); ?>
I don't really like it, seems as an awkward way to solve it, but it seem to work whatever system php runs on and wherever the file is placed, making it system independent.
To reach files outside the web directory add some more ../ after $root, e.g. $root."../external/file.txt".
I'm in the process of setting up a php project, but am not very familiar with how to properly use php's include/require commands. My layout currently looks like this:
/public --apache points into this directory
/public/index.php
/public/blah/page.php
/utils/util1.php -- useful classes/code are stored in other directories out here
/dbaccess/db1.php
dbaccess/db1.php
require '../utils/util1.php
public/index.php
require '../dbaccess/db1.php'
public/blah/page.php
require '../../dbaccess/db1.php'
The problem is this from the php 'include' documentation:
If filename begins with ./ or ../, it is looked only in the current working directory
So public/blah/page.php fails because it includes dbaccess/db1.php which blows up when it tries to include util1.php. It fails because it's relative path is from the original script in public/blah/, not from dbaccess/
This seems pretty stupid -- db1.php has to just know where it's being included from which isn't going to work.
I've seen strategies like this:
require_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/../utils/util1.php');
That apparently works since now the path is an absolute path, but just seems really bizarre to me.
Is that normal? Should I continue down that path or am I missing something obvious here?
Usually, the standard conventions are thus: like #grepsedawk said, you'll want to define a constant that contains the root of your project folder and if you can the root of your includes folder:
define('APP_ROOT', dirname(__FILE__));
define('INCLUDE_ROOT', APP_ROOT . "/includes");
Note: the constant name needs to be a string!
Also, you'll notice I'm using dirname(__FILE__);. If you place your constants definition file in a subdirectory, you can do a dirname(dirname(__FILE__));, which is the equivalent of a ../.
Now some other caveats. While PATH_SEPARATOR is a cool constant, it is not needed. Windows accepts / or \ in path names, and since Linux only users / as a path separator, go ahead and always use a / instead of mucking up your code with repeated references to PATH_SEPARATOR.
Now that you have your root constants defined, what you'll do when you need a configuration file included is a simple:
include INCLUDE_ROOT . '/path/to/some/file.php';
You'll probably want your constant definitions (the define(...)'s above) in a bootstrap script in your root directory:
www_root/
index.php
bootstrap.php
The bootstrap will contain the defines (or an include of the constants file), as well as an include of any files that will be required by EVERY page.
And finally the last standard convention you may not use, but if you start doing object oriented programming, the most common method (the PEAR standard) is to name your classes by using an _ to separate namespaces:
class GlobalNamespace_Namespace_Class
//...
And then organizing your file structure mapping name spaces to subdirectories (literally replacing all _'s with /'s):
include_dir/
GlobalNamespace/
Namespace/
Class.php
And using __autoload() functions to load your classes, but that's another question.
Have a configuration script that sets the "INSTALL ROOT" of your project and then use absolute paths. Relative path with multiple includes is a headache in php.
DEFINE("INSTALL_ROOT", "/path/to/www/project")
require_once(INSTALL_ROOT . '/util1.php')
in my config / setup file, i do something like
define('MYAPP_BASEDIR',realpath('.'));
then i reference everything relative to that.
... if your include directory relates specifically to class files and you are able to name them so that the include file name could be derived from the class, you might like to look into spl_autoload_register().
this latter part isn't a direct answer to your question, but it's very handy if you're doing includes for each class you use.
Keep in mind, it starts in the current working directory and then looks through the include paths. If you want to reference all of your paths from some central root directory (or many) you can add that directory in the php.ini file or you can do it programatically with set_include_path( $path.PATH_SEPERATOR.get_include_path());
I suggest an abstraction strategy.
In your application page area, have a single file that all pages include.
This "local" include file has one job: find the include file that is outside the application page area. It then includes that. It can probably be as simple as <?php include dirname(__FILE__).'/../include/include.php/'; ?>
This second file is the single entry point into your library structure. It, or something else it includes, has the job of finding where everything is and including it.
This structure means you have just one file as your library's entry point and how it finds the rest of the library is not the application pages' problem. It also means you have just one file in your application area which knows how to find your library's entry point.
If you need a way for different application pages to load different things, I would suggest a modularisation approach. This can either be a global array you set before the master include, or a function you can call to request libraries by name. Yes, this is a slightly fancier way of your master library file declaring a constant of where everything is -- but it removes the temptation of doing include LIBRARY_DIR.'/utils/util.php'; which straightaway makes it unnecessarily difficult to move util.php out of utils and into misc/util at a later date.
The other advantage of the chained files is that it is then much easier to make your codebase relocatable, which makes it possible for multiple versions to be runnable. And it makes it possible to have one tree for the application and another for your library. Which means another application could use your library. In fact, you could extend the chaining a bit more if you want to help with the isolation further.
You're right, your scripts doesn't have to know the physical path where your includes are.
IMO the location where the includes are should be configured in the PHP.INI file (or .htaccess if you preffer).
Suponse your includes (utils and database are stored here /home/scott/php_includes/).
PHP.INI:
include_path=.:/home/scott/php_includes/
Now your scripts can include the libraries in this way:
dbaccess/db1.php:
require_once 'utils/util1.php';
public/index.php
require_once 'dbaccess/db1.php';
public/blah/page.php:
require_once 'dbaccess/db1.php';
A lot of people have provided good solutions, but I've just got one performance-related remark while talking about includes and requires.
If you start include'ing and require'ing a lot of files, it can be tempting to use include_once or require_once. Cachegrinds of scripts that use a lot of _once's have shown that they really slow down performance as the script has to stop what its doing to scan and make sure the file hasn't been included already. Eliminating as many of the _once's as you can will help a lot.
There was perfect solution - pecl extension called "pwee" - it allowed user define his/her own extern superglobal constants / variable using XML file. Thus you were able to use absolute path as I recomend in such form:
require_once APP_ROOT."/path/to/your/script.php";
The advantage of such solution was:
accessible from everywhere
no server load - everything in server memory
The XML file contained
<Environments>
<Application name="www.domain.com" namespace="">
<Constants>
<Constant name="APP_ROOT" value="/full/path/to/project/source" />
</Constants>
<Constants>
<Constant name="WEB_ROOT" value="/full/path/to/project/public" />
</Constants>
</Application>
</Environments>
link to pwee project
You should distinguish these cases of inclusion:
standalone library - all includes should be relative - to let user integrate it to his/her project easily
executable scripts in your public directory - contain absolute includes to project files and to standalone libraries public files (which has relative includes inside - transparent to user). Using the APP_ROOT constant is elegant way.
a,link,script, form html elemets and header forwards should use relative path when diving into tree hierarchy and absolute path when using common files from higher levels of hierarchy
In case of relative path use this form:
require_once "./relative/path/to/script.php";
Why do I use past tense? Because the project is not more supported - works only with Php4. If anyone knows similar solution with support, please let me know.
The best way to do that is to build flexible autoload system.
Simple map of classnames and proprietary patches. Then any internal require_* or include_* is not needed.
There is of course matter of relative/absolute path for autoloader. Well, absolute is most system-efficient, so in the array I mentioned before u can prepend some kind of variable {I have used Phing-style variable} e.g.
<map>
<path classname="MyClass">${project_directory}/libs/my_classes/MyClass.php</path>
<path classname="OtherClass">${project_directory}/libs/some_new/Other.php</path>
<!-- its so flexible that even external libraries fit in -->
<path classname="Propel">${project_directory}/vendors/propel/Propel.php</path>
<!-- etc -->
</map>
This is xml (think about ini or yaml as well) file and requires compile to php during first start, but after that any path is absolute.
Oh, as you can see no file naming convention or file layout is mandatory - its huge advantage.
Cheers, Alan.
It seems that every time I move my simple scripts from one server to another I have to redefine where things are.
I set up a test environment at home, built a few things, and deployed them to a shared host. The result was that the $_server['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] was two folders higher than the public_html folder on one server, and on another server it was one folder higher.
That skewed all my references. So I tried $_server['WEB_ROOT'] and failed again. I was thinking that the web root was a reference to the root of publicly-accessible folders on the server, but I was wrong.
I have one to throw in the pile that did something really simple without adding a lot of code I don't understand (I don't understand a lot of this code either, I just kept adding as I read rules and got it to work).
This gave me a reference to the publicly-accessible web root on all three servers I tried it on. Now I can move my folder anywhere and it just works, no config file necessary!
pub-doc-root.php:
<?php
//You only need to paste the following line into your script once,
//and it must come before you reference the public document root of your website.
//Use $pubroot.'/path_from_public_document_root_to_file/filename.php
$pubroot = (str_replace(($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']), '', (str_replace('\\', '/', (realpath(basename(getenv("SCRIPT_NAME"))))))));
//uncomment the next line to show the calculated public document root
//relative to the document root.
//echo ("$pubroot");
?>
My test environment:
php 5.3.1
Apache 2.2.14 (Win32) mod_ssl 2.2.14 OpenSSL 0.9.8k
ZendServer-CE-5.0.0GA_RC181-5.3.1-Windows_x86
Why not require it based on it's full path?
For example, /sharedhost/yourdomain.com/apache/www is your document root, so why not use
require('/sharedhost/yourdomain.com/apache/www/dbutils.php');
This also has the advantage of you being able to store your includes outside of your wwwroot so they are far less likely to be inadvertenly exposed via the web.
You could also set up a global variable equal to the /sharedhost/yourdomain.com/apache/ part of it so you can move the site around.
require(WWWROOT . '/dbutils.php');
I use
require '../path/to/file.ext';
without problems.
Also require is a statement not a function so it should be used as
require '/path/to/file.ext';
not
require('/path/to/file.ext');