PHP Include() broken Links

jj-dr

I believe the issue I am facing is how to use PHP include();

This is what exactly happening:
I am working in my local machine using WAMP Server.

1) My main index.php file is located in: http://localhost/MARANATHA.tv/index.php
2) This is my folder hierarchy:
a) http://localhost/MARANATHA.tv/]index.php
b) http://localhost/MARANATHA.tv/_functions/functions.php
c) http://localhost/MARANATHA.tv/bible/search.php

functions.php is added as an include() in index.php, and it contains all the functions that make up my website. menu() generates my menu buttons and content()generates the body text of each menu page.

3) I am including a bible script (third party), which comes with is own database. I used an if condition so as to when the user clicks on BIBLE button, it includes the third part appplications main file search.php The code to include the search.php file is: include ('bible/search.php');

When I click on the BIBLE button, the right the content of search.php is rendered on the page. We are good up to here. However, when I click on any of the links in search.php, they are broken. For instance if I click on genesis, I am directed to http://localhost/MARANATHA.tv/readbible.php?version=kjv&book=Genesis, which is broken.

What's happening, in this case, is that PHP engine is looking at readbible.php as if this file is included in the main root folder (http://localhost/MARANATHA.tv/readbible.php), and not in the bible folder (http://localhost/MARANATHA.tv/bible/readbible.php) as is supposed to happen.

You can also see it online at maranatha.tv I use jQUERY to render the contents pages. So if you click BIBLE, you will only see maranatha.tv on the address bar and not maranatha.tv/bible/search.php but that's fine. However if click on any of the links on BIBLE page, it will show the broken link as so: http://maranatha.tv/readbible.php?version=kjv&book=Genesis

Here's my entire content function:

function content(){
// DETERMINE which page ID to USE in our query below ***************************************************	

if (!isset($_GET['jesusid'])) {
$pageid = '1';	

} else {

$pageid = preg_replace('#[^0-9]#i', '', $_GET['jesusid']);} // filter everything but numbers for security)
//preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $string);//preg_replace() Function structure

// Query the body section for the proper page
$query = mysql_query ("SELECT body_text,title,linklabel, author FROM content WHERE id = '$pageid' LIMIT 1 ") or die (mysql_error());  

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {     

echo ucwords($row['title']).' por ';
echo '<b>'.$row['author']. '</b><br>';
    echo ucwords($row['body_text']);

//Add Bible Script
if (ucwords($row['title'])=='Biblia') //use row title -- UPPERCASED word
   {
     include ('bible/search.php');
   }

 }
}

?>

Thanks for your help!

bradgrafelman

Welcome to PHPBuilder!

jj-dr;10994464 wrote:
2) This is my folder hierarchy:
a) http://localhost/MARANATHA.tv/]index.php
b) http://localhost/MARANATHA.tv/_functions/functions.php
c) http://localhost/MARANATHA.tv/bible/search.php

No it isn't. What you've shown are three URLs, and URLs have no direct correlation to the files and folders on the server's filesystem.

However, I'm assuming that there's no mod_rewrite type redirection going on and that you simply meant to show "index.php" and "bible/search.php" relative to each other.

jj-dr;10994464 wrote:
However, when I click on any of the links in search.php, they are broken. For instance if I click on genesis, I am directed to http://localhost/MARANATHA.tv/readbible.php?version=kjv&book=Genesis, which is broken.

Can you show us the HTML output generated by this 3rd party script? I'm guessing it's simply using relative URLs in the <a> tags, e.g. something like:

<a href="readbible.php?...">Link</a>

jj-dr;10994464 wrote:
What's happening, in this case, is that PHP engine is looking at readbible.php as if this file is included in the main root folder (http://localhost/MARANATHA.tv/readbible.php), and not in the bible folder (http://localhost/MARANATHA.tv/bible/readbible.php) as is supposed to happen.

Not really, no. PHP isn't responsible for telling your browser "Okay, here are the links from this readbible.php script, and although the URL doesn't suggest it, you really should assume that relative paths start in this 'bible' subfolder that you know nothing about." 😉

Since it would appear that this 3rd party script doesn't include extra logic to determine where the 'readbible.php' script is located relative to the URL requested to generate the search results, it has no idea that using relative HTML links is going to break things since you included the 'search.php' file from a different folder.

Here are a few ways to resolve this:

Move the 'bible/readbible.php' script to be in the same directory as the script(s) include()'ing it.
Alter the 'bible/search.php' script to output the correct HTML links.
Use mod_rewrite to redirect requests for 'readbible.php' to 'bible/readbible.php'.

jj-dr

Thanks for your help bradgrafelman.

I am learning php and don't know how to use mode_rewrite.

MARANATHA.tv is my root folder where all the files are as follow:

a) main index file: index.php
b) functions folder: _functions/functions.php
c) ible folder bible/search.php

The index.php file includes the functions.php file: include('_functions/functions.php') and this files file contains the two main functions discussed: menu() and content().

The content() function contains clause that if the user clicks on the BIBLE button, it will include the the search.php file, which in turn comes with its own database table bibleDB. All other menu buttons content pages are pulled from the main database table maranthaDB.

So, what I see happening is that once the functions.php file is included in the index.php file, it becomes local to the main folder as if functions.php were located in MARANATHA.tv/functions.php and not MARANATHA.tv/_functions/functions.php

Since search.php is called from functions.php as in include(bible/search.php), then search.php also becomes local to the main folder as in MARANTHA.tv/search/php and that's why it renders the initial results. However, all the links within search.php remain relative to the bible folder and that's why they are broken.

I guess the best way I can explain it is how do I insert and entirely different website residing in a different folder (which is what the bible script is) and make it work within the flow of my main site.

jj-dr

Oh, here are the urls:
maranatha.tv

and the bible script file maranatha.tv/bible/search.php

jj-dr

Oops, here the bible link again:
http://maranatha.tv/bible/search.php

jj-dr

bradgrafelman;10994467 wrote:
Welcome to PHPBuilder!
Here are a few ways to resolve this:

Move the 'bible/readbible.php' script to be in the same directory as the script(s) include()'ing it.

Alter the 'bible/search.php' script to output the correct HTML links.

Use mod_rewrite to redirect requests for 'readbible.php' to 'bible/readbible.php'.

there are so many dependant files inside the bible folder. I cannot move those to my root folder becuase it would be a mess.

Krik

Unless you are really familiar with building web sites you would be better off taking the original program and making it look like your site and having the menu point to it. Trying to get third party programs to work within an existing site can be difficult even for experience web designers.

At the bottom of one of the pages you linked, was link to the site that you got the program from so I downloaded it. It looks like it is more designed to be an all encompassing website solution than to be added to an existing site. And the real short coming is that there appears to be absolutely no documentation for it. Unusual at the least for such a massive program.

I would say the easiest route would be to just use the database and build your own search and reading pages. It would be easier than trying to get the existing code to work within your site. And really if you did it this way no matter what you may needed to do in the future you would know how your code works and be able to modify it.

jj-dr

Thanks for the insight guys. I thought I was just missing something in the way used include. For instance, I know that using an iframe would do the trick in terms of linking to files in a particular folder. But iframes are pain in this case because the iframe must be resized to content with each link and that's almost impossible to achieve. I've tried almost every trick out there without success.

I am almost giving up on the idea adding the online bible for this website. I just thought it would be a neat thing to have. But I guess I pushing the boundaries of PHP. I'll keep digging a bit more. Anyways', thanks a lot for your insight and advice.