How do I set an absolute include path in PHP?

Question

In HTML, I can find a file starting from the web server\'s root folder by beginning the filepath with "/". Like:

/images/some_image         


        

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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".

Answer 3

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");

Answer 4

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

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

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");