[RESOLVED] Problems with define();

mborish_2000

I can't seem to get these require(); and define(); things to work properly. Currently I am building a website and would like to define all of my links throughout the site. I can get the require(); and define(); stuff to work on pages in the same folder, but cannot get them to work between sub folders. Here is EXACTLY how my http://www.borishrealty.com/global_links.php page looks:

<?php

/Home Page/

define("_HOME", "<a href='http://www.borishrealty.com' title='Borish Realty, Inc Home Page'>Home</a>");

/Selling Main Navigation/

define("_SELLINGMAIN", "<a href='/selling/sellingmain.php' title='How Borish Realty Sells Homes'>Selling</a>");

define("_PRESALESREC", "<a href='/selling/presalesrec.php' title=''>Pre Sales Recommendations</a>");

And this is exactly how my require (); page looks:

<?php

require("http://www.borishrealty.com/global_links.php");

I'm having no luck whatsoever! I 'm not getting an error message, it's just echoing _HOME where the <a href> should be. This is getting very frustrating. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Why does this work if both of them are in the same folder, but if one is in a sub folder it will not work? Is there anything I can do with the server?

-Mike

devinemke

use the server's filesystem path in your require() statement (rather then the URL).

require('/path/to/global_links.php');

mborish_2000

I;ve tried every path and slash I could think of. How exactly do I define or figure out what exactly the server's file system path is? I'm not getting an error message unless I change the file name. I tried require('/path/to/global_links.php'); also, thinking it was some sort of strange secret handshake, but no luck.

Weedpacket

Pull together some of the stuff in the $SERVER[] array - $SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] for example - and build up an absolute path from that.

mborish_2000

Thanks Weedpacket man. That's a good Idea. I've never experimented with the $_SERVER global but it sounds fun and looks promising.

mborish_2000

Weedman's got the hookup!

This did the trick:

<?php
session_start();
if($_SERVER[ 'global_url' ]) { require('http://www.borishrealty.com/global_links.php'); }
?>

mborish_2000

Ok, so that didn't do it. I still haven't figured it out yet.

Weedpacket

Close; but you probably don't want to require() the URL, you want to use the filename (they're different things). Using the URL means you're asking the web server to run global_links.php and you'll get whatever the result of that is. If you ask the filesystem instead you'll get the actual file. Guessing from your URL it looks like $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'global_links.php' would be what you're after.

mborish_2000

Ok, I undersatand the theory, but not the execution. What exactly should I put at the header of my global_links.php page? What should I put at the head of the pages that I want to call the global_links.php page?

At the head of my global_links.php page, I have:

<?php
session_start();
require($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'global_links.php');

And at the head of the pages calling the global_links.php file I have:

<?php
session_start();

I keep getting this error message:

Warning: main(/home/content/m/b/o/mborish2000/htmlglobal_links.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/content/m/b/o/mborish2000/html/selling/sample.php on line 4

Fatal error: main(): Failed opening required '/home/content/m/b/o/mborish2000/htmlglobal_links.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/content/m/b/o/mborish2000/html/selling/sample.php on line 4

I can't think of how else to call the page.

Weedpacket

The error message says it can't find /home/content/m/b/o/mborish2000/htmlglobal_links.php
The file path should be /home/content/m/b/o/mborish2000/htmlb/global_links.php

Typo on my part; I left out a slash. $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/global_links.php'

Assuming of course that global_links.php is in /home/content/m/b/o/mborish2000/html/

Oh, and once you start the session you don't need to immediately start it again in the same script. In fact, since PHP4.3.3, it will trigger a NOTICE-level message. 🙂

mborish_2000

Thanks, that did it. I appreciate your patience Weedpacketman. You had me scared with that slash omission for a second.