is this bad coding?

Anon

In a project of mine, I need to include a lot of files. But if the file is missing, I want my script to look somewhere else for the files... I found out this works, but I'm not sure if it's the cleanest way to do it :

if (!@include ("modules/$mod/content/$go.php")) {
if (!@include ("shared/content/$go.php")) {
if (!@include ("modules/$mod/content/404.php")) {
echo ("<b>Page not found!</b><br>");
}
}
}

Any feedback?

Anon

hmmm... I think this forum should replace tabs (/t) with ten or so non-breaking-spaces so the indentation remains intact...

kparker

Could you could set include_path in the php ini file to all the right places?

Or (a) does your host not allow this, or (b) is the list of locations different for different include-files?

Anon

I have my own dedicated server, so I can allow myself anything I want... however, the list of locations IS different for every include... It's a pretty complicated system... It will be a project where you can plug in modules (like a forum, link directory, etc...) which can share the same member logins, functions, etc... This is useful to integrate a forum or something with other things, show the latest news-headlines on other pages, etc... (hope you understand what I mean...)

[deleted]

It's probably the most compact way of doing what you want.

The only thing is that you try an include, and see if it fails, whereas I would probably first check if the file exists before I try to include it.
Just my way of doing things.

Altough it might be a good idea to start some sort of look-up file where the filenames and their locations are stored so you can include the "locations.php" file at the top of each page, which the tells you where each include file is.

That's a bit more maintenance, but it'll save you the trouble of trying several different locations in each script.