Test if a file exist outside the docRoot

[adobepro]

Hi,

I'd like to test if a inlcude file exists - I've used

"file = file_exists($productLocation.'/'.$productRequested.'.php');"

with great success, but do to my new hosting provider, I can only access my include files outside of the document root. So I can no longer test if it exist thru file_exist. I've tried assigning a variable to the require function to see if it would pass false if the file did not exist. But I just get a fatal warning when it does not exist and it prints out twice the require file if the file does exist! Is there any way to test if a file exist outside the documentRoot?

Thanks,

Alex