include user-defined function-- scope issues?

Matt_Kindig

Hi,

I've come across something that is really puzzling me. I have a site with a number of user-defined functions stored across several scripts, i.e. database functions, date/time functions, etc., particular to my site. I have a script init.php that includes each of these files at the beginning of each script, i.e.

init.php:
<?php
include_once("functionlib/db_functions.php");
include_once("functionlib/date_functions.php");
... etc.
?>

I call init.php at the beginning of each page, as

index.php, or any other page:
<?php
include("init.php");
...content
?>

I then check to see if the functions in db_functions.php were created successfully, through function_exist. PHP says none of them exist. Oddly, when I have the

index.php, or any other page:
<?php
include_once("functionlib/db_functions.php"), ...
...content
?>

commands at the start of any page, PHP says that the functions exist. So it appears that nesting an include() statement inside another include()-ed file causes scope issues with regard to user-defined functions. Is there something that I'm doing wrong, or is this just a feature of PHP I have to work around?

Thanks, Matt

devinemke

it sounds like your paths are wrong. try using absolute paths in your include() statements.

Matt_Kindig

I just changed the paths to absolute paths and it doesn't seem to fix the problem. Hmm....

phil_j_poore

i do the same thing with a site i am making i have a

include($root."top.inc.php");

at the top of every page and this top.inc.php file loads everything i need but i use $root as the path to document root this stops things getting messed up i also did it your way at the start but found the same problems very quickly so i changed to using absolute paths and not relative.

Roger_Ramjet

Well, I don't know about function_exists, my only worry would be if my script called one and it did not reply. I nest my includes 3 levels deep so that I only have to add 1 require to each new page, and I've not yet had a problem connecting to the db or calling any function. Might be more a problem with the function_exists function than with the scope of an include or require.

Matt_Kindig

No, I don't think the function_exists function is giving me the wrong results, since when I try to call the function I get PHP's 'not found' error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: redirect() in /home/matt/public_html/index.php on line 8

I now have all the include paths as absolute paths, and it still won't work. I have no idea what I could be doing wrong!

Roger_Ramjet

Look for typos, they can kill you sometimes. Does the function every get called successfully?

devinemke

do a simple test:

original.php

<?php
$include = include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/include1.php');
if (!$include) {exit('include FAIL');}

if (function_exists('test')) {echo 'yes, function test() is set';}
else {echo 'no, function test() is NOT set';}
?>

include1.php

<?php
$include = include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/include2.php');
if (!$include) {exit('include FAIL');}
?>

include2.php

<?php
function test() {echo 'test';}
?>

the above works as expected on my box

Matt_Kindig

I tried this test, and the result was:

no, function test() is NOT set

So I suppose that while both files were include()-ed properly, the function test() was not being recognized by original.php.

Matt_Kindig

I also tried this test on another server that I manage, and the test worked successfully, i.e. the output was

yes, function test() is set

So maybe there is something corrupt in the PHP install on the problematic server?

Matt_Kindig

After doing some testing, I found the following: The test file works correctly when the file is located at a branch off the site root /var/www/html/, but incorrectly when the file is located at a branch off the home directory, i.e. ~matt/, even when I change the siteroot in the script to reflect this change.