Stupid PHP question

[AzazaelFenrir]

It is late and I am sure I am over looking something, so hopefully you guys can help.

I am working on a website for a friend and here is how I would like to set it up.

root
root/includes (has my image directory, stylesheets directory, and include files)
root/otherdirectory (with multiple subdirectories)

The problem I am having is that I can get pages to display fine from the root, but when I go to the otherdirectory it is having problems getting the include files right.

am I just really tired and this isn't possible. or do I need to do something differently?

[Icari]

what path are you using in otherdirectory to call the files in the includes folder? something like ../includes?

p.s. not a php expert at all.

[The Stig]

From my previous experience I only use include to directly shove (add?) something onto part of my website, not actually "include" whole directories and treat them as it's on the root.

Can you tell me what you are trying to do overall?

[AzazaelFenrir]

well I think I have my problem solved.

Is what I was trying to do was to reference two style sheets, two includes, and an image; no matter where I was in the directory structure.

The way I fixed the problem was to add as many ../ as I would need at the max depth. So since I knew I was going to need access to some of the files from 3 deep, I have 3 ../ preceding my references. The big problem I was running into is that my include files were referencing the image and stylesheets. Since they were at the same level I didn't think I needed to add a bunch of ../ It turns out though, that it was trying to add the files from the original calling file level, and not the include file level.

Not sure if that made enough sense or not

[Uzor]

I believe PHP always base the file path from the location the currently run file is at. As such, if you do, for example, a require(include/stylesheet.xls) for the layout of the page, the stylesheet.xls file would also need the filepath starting from the file that runs it. As such, it is usually best to include the full filepath for all files that are opened through another file.

Remember, when you use the require() command anywhere on your page, it pretty much replaces require() with the full text from the file it opens. As such, it would try to use the file path from that file, causing an error.

[Zeith]

From php.net:

"Files are included based on the file path given or, if none is given, the include_path specified. If the file isn't found in the include_path, include() will finally check in the calling script's own directory and the current working directory before failing. The include() construct will emit a warning if it cannot find a file; this is different behavior from require(), which will emit a fatal error."

include_path is a configuration option set in your php.ini . The safest way to include things is to use absolute paths, or failing that, define your include_path in php.ini and put everything you need included in that directory. That way, you can just say require_once('vars.php') and no matter your CWD or the directory of the file you're calling require_once() from, it'll look first in your include_path.

[AzazaelFenrir]

php.ini is site wide correct, you can't override it for a local area.

[Zeith]

You can override it on a per-script basis with ini_set(), and some variables can be overridden on a per-directory basis with .htaccess files.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.list.php This is a list of all the configuration options. The ones you can override with ini_set() are listed as PHP_INI_USER, and the ones you can change with .htaccess directives are listed under PHP_INI_PERDIR