$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] and include

searain

When using the include(), it is a good practice to use the $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] to get the root path and then get the include file path as relative to the root

such as

include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] ."/myfilestobeincluded/file1.php");

So no matter the page will be moved to where, this include() will always pointing to the right path.

it is better than using the relative path only such as

include(../../myfilestobeincluded/file1.php);

My questions are

1) Am I right about the above statment?

2) If I am right, how do I handle the files to be included which is not in the webroot folder? in this case, using the root, $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'], as the relative path will not work. Because the file I want to include is outside the wwwroot.

Thanks!

seby

you are right, it is a better coding practice to use $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']

sometimes what i tend to do is create a global config.php file that gets included into every single page..

example this is what one of my config files look like:

<?php

$image = '/images';
$header = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/includes/header.php');
$footer = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/includes/footer.php');

// other defined variables

?>

then in my pages would look something like:

require('/config.php');
include($header);

// some content...


include($footer);
?>

also, notice the $image variable, i use that for all my image path, i can edit one file and change hundreds of image paths in one second (if i ever needed to)..

searain

$SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] will work for the folder under www, but if I put all the "includes files" in a folder at the same level of the wwwroot folder, how can I get the path information dynamically like using $SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] for the folders under the wwwroot.

such as the folder structure like this

includes_files_1
--file1.php
wwwroot
--includes_files_2
----file2.php

to include the files in the includes_files_2, I can use $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']

include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] ."/includes_files_2/file2.php");

But how can I get the path dynamically to include the file1.php?

Thanks!

synergypoint

the PHP variable $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] is determined from your web server setup.

So you can't access files using the PHP Server variables in the same way that is outside of the path in your server setup.

You can do what seby suggestion by creating a configuration file that has the local server path to the files stored. Then call this file at the beginning of your PHP files.

<?PHP

//Global Config File

$path_to_files='/server/path/to/files';

Then your PHP files will simply call the Global Config File. If your global config file is within your server path, then you can use the PHP server variables as before.

<?PHP

//Get Global Config File
include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/path_to_config_file/config.php');

//Get Other Files
include($path_to_files.'/my_included_file.php');

A question I have is why would you be including files not in your server path anyway? You could also set up sym links I think.