php 'include' issue

naxalyte

hello,
I'm trying to get phpBulletinBoard3 nicely integrated with my existing website. Basically I want to be able to provide access by using the 'include' statement to include the phpBB3 index.php file from within my site's main php file, but it gives me an error when I try and run.

My phpBB dir is a subdirectory of the www dir, and the file I am trying to include contains other include statements, so maybe its got something to do with the include_path?

I use this statement to include a target file

<?php include("phpBB3/index.php"); ?>

but I get this error when I refresh the browser

Warning: include(./common.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\wamp\www\phpBB3\index.php on line 21

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening './common.php' for inclusion (include_path='.;C:\php5\pear') in C:\wamp\www\phpBB3\index.php on line 21

Warning: include(./includes/functions_display.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\wamp\www\phpBB3\index.php on line 22

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening './includes/functions_display.php' for inclusion (include_path='.;C:\php5\pear') in C:\wamp\www\phpBB3\index.php on line 22

Fatal error: Call to a member function session_begin() on a non-object in C:\wamp\www\phpBB3\index.php on line 25

This is line 21, 22 and 25 of the phpBB file I want to include

include($phpbb_root_path . 'common.' . $phpEx);  //line 21
include($phpbb_root_path . 'includes/functions_display.' . $phpEx);  //line 22

$user->session_begin();  //line 25

planetsim

This is a phpBB issue and really should have been posted there but from what I can tell you need to setup the $phpbb_root_path path. Im not sure where that gets setup.

naxalyte

phpBB works fine when I run it independently, its just when I try to embed it in another file using the 'include' statement. Are there any issues when trying to include a file that contains other includes references? Especially if the two files are located in different directories?

NogDog

Remember that when you include a file, it is as though its contents are now in the calling file. Therefore, those relative paths (e.g. "./includes/functions_display.php") are relative to the main script which did the including, not relative to the included file. Thus, unless the main script is in the same directory as the included files, such relative paths will not work. One work-around would be to do a [man]chdir/man to the phpBB directory where that file is before including it.

naxalyte

Thanks NogDog, I've made progress with the chdir function but still further issues.
The forum now gets displayed (yay!) but missing all its images (boo). It seems as though it can access everything within the new working directory but nothing outside (the images are stored in a subdir). Tried changing the root path but browser wasnt happy. Any ideas?

NogDog

Try adding a <base> tag to the <head> of your document, specifying the URI to that phpBB file as the href value. If you do this, you will then want to be sure to give full paths (as opposed to relative paths) to any link or image files in your HTML which are not part of that include file.

naxalyte

made a little more progress. Some but not all the forum images are now displaying, but to change all my links is going to consume some time.

Just a thought, but if I need to change the current working directory temporarily on each client request of index.php so that the forum can be loaded, does this present complications for other users who request index.php during this period where the current working directory is changed?

NogDog

The chdir() is local only to the current instance of the script doing it. No other scripts will have any awareness of it.

Just a thought: could you obviate all of this by putting the phpBB page into a HTML <iframe> tag instead of doing it as a PHP include?

naxalyte

Not too keen on using frames, especially for a forum as i think it makes it impossible for users to bookmark certain pages. Also I think some browsers have compatibility issues with frames.

I think I'll end up modifying my phpbb file to include my header file, instead of vice versa, which makes more sense, but for now I really want to resolve the original problem just out of curiosity.