Help with relative paths in includes.

[shachi]

Hello everyone,

I hope you've seen something like this in popular (PHP)frameworks or wikis or bulletin boards(like dokuwiki). I hope you've realised that these softwares let you change the names of their directory and the software still works(without any other efforts to modify the main script). They use something like a "dynamic" include that finds the needed file where ever it is. I was making a script where I needed a similar thing but unfortunately even with hours of googling, I couldn't find it. So I was wondering if anyone has any idea to achieve this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time and patience.

[BLiZZaRD]

errr...

<?php include("path/to/file.php"); ?>

I understand you can also use require(); the same way.

This must NOT be what you mean... is it?

[shachi]

To tell you the truth, it is but not completely(about 33&#37.

Let me show you an example:

The problem with relative URLs in include is:

<?php
include("/path/to/file.php");
/*... bla bla bla ...*/
?>

now, the until the "file.php" is inside the "to" directory inside the "path" directory, the script will work but what if I wanted to change the name of the "path" directory to, say "relpath"(where rel means relative), now I need to modify the path in all the scripts. What I want is a dynamic way where I don't need to modify the code when I change the directory name(because when the size of the code is huge, it is almost impossible for any "normal" user to go back to the main source code and change each and every path).

I hope I was able to clear my point.

Thanks for your help though.

[mburt]

$path = "path/to/";
include $path."filenamehere.php"; 

And keep reusing the variable in every instance in your code. So then if you have to change the folder location/name simply change the variable "path"

[Titan85]

I don't know how to do this, but I believe that this tutorial is what you are looking for: http://www.pixel2life.com/publish/tu...put_buffering/ . Hope thats what you need

[shachi]

Titan85: Been there, done that. Thanks anyways.

[boxxertrumps]

So Some Sort of Code that Searches the Directory for a folder that Contains a Folder which Contains A Specific File?

This Could be Accomplished Using A Multi Dimensional array Generated like this...

$dir = array (
"folderA" => array (index.php, include.php, pic2.bmp),
"folderX" => array (zero.bmp, header.jpeg, .htacsess),
index.php,
picture.jpeg
)
then search it for a certain folder/file
So $dir[folderA][1] would be returned as folderA/include.php

I have No Idea How This Could be accomplished, but i Do Know its possible.

[Twey]

mburt is correct: this is the method I've seen in every major PHP application. The path is stored as a variable in a separate file as close to the root of the application as possible ("config.php" for example), then included into other files, from whence it is used as part of the include path for further files.

include("/path/to/file.php");

That's an absolute path.

You should also look at the tool sed. It's capable of doing recursive search/replace operations.

[BLiZZaRD]

Quick interjection...

I have been working on an SQL/PHP problem for a while, and this last post has given me a new idea...

can I ask what the "corrrect" syntax is for a single array?

Here is what I am looking at, please correct or confirm for me:

$name = array (name1, name2, name3, name4);

//later on in the source...

value = ?first_name : $name; 

What I am trying to get around is the *:* means either/or, so by making the other option an array, I could have more choices added to the second half, yes?

[mburt]

You didn't supply an initial argument?

value = ?first_name : $name;

Shouldn't it be:

value = argument?first_name : $name;

I'm confused on this issue...