CODEWITHSUNDEEP
php
Student of Hogwarts
Student of Hogwarts

Reputation: 1138

PHP: require doesn't work as it should

I have a directory root:

index.php
includes/
    template.php
    testfile.php
    phpFiles/
        processInput.php
        testfile.php

index.php:

require_once("includes/template.php");

template.php:

require_once("includes/phpFiles/processInput.php")

processInput.php:

require_once("testfile.php")
require_once("../testfile.php")

This code will work when you run index.php, of course it will not work when you run template.php.

As you can see, index.php includes template.php like normal. But in template.php, you have to include like if you are in the directory that index.php is in. But then, in processInput.php, you include as if you are in the directory that processInput.php is in.

Why is this happening, and how can I fix it so that the include path is always the directory of the file that the require is done in? The second included file have the same include path as the requested file, but the next one does not.

Thanks for your help!

EDIT: The strange thing is that I've included classes in a class folder. And it included other files as it is supposed to, even though the paths are relative. WHY does this happen, and how can I fix it?

VERY IMPORTANT EDIT: I just realized that all this is because in my example, the inclusion in includes/phpFiles/processInput.php includes a file in the same directory: require_once("file in same dir.php"); This is the reason. If you are including a file with out specifying anything more than the filename, the include_path is actually the dir where the file the require is written in is in. Can anyone confirm this?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 13559

Answers (4)

Ja͢ck
Ja͢ck

Reputation: 173602

You can do this in a few ways, amongst others:

  1. Use set_include_path to control the directories from where to perform require() calls.

  2. Define a common absolute base path in a constant that you define in index.php and use that in every require() statement (e.g. require(BASEPATH . '/includes/template.php')).

  3. Use relative paths everywhere and leverage dirname(__FILE__) or __DIR__ to turn them into absolute paths. For instance: require(__DIR__ . '/phpFiles/processInput.php');

By default, the current working directory is used in the include path; you can verify this by inspecting the output of get_include_path(). However, this is not relative to where the include() is made from; it's relative to the main executing script.

Upvotes: 3

user849137
user849137

Reputation:

You're using relative paths. You need to use absolute paths: $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].

When you include/require, you are basically temporarily moving all code from one file, to another.

so if file1.php (which is located in root) contains:

require("folder/file.php");

and you include file1.php in file2.php (which is in a different location (say folder directory for example):

file2.php:

require("../file1.php");

Now all of file1.php code is in file2.php. So file2.php will look like this:

require("../file1.php");
require("folder/file.php");//but because file2.php is already in the `folder` directory, this path does not exist...

Upvotes: 1

jmbertucci
jmbertucci

Reputation: 8234

index.php:

require_once("includes/template.php");

template.php:

require_once("includes/phpFiles/processInput.php")

Your directory structure is off. The file inclusion is being seen from the file you're using it from. So, "template.php" is looking for an "includes/" folder in its current folder (/includes/).

As others are saying, use absolute paths, which will make sure you're always going at it from the file system root, or use:

require_once("phpFiles/processInput.php")

In your template.php file (which is far more likely to break if you ever move things around, which is why others all recommend using absolute paths from the file system root).

BTW, if you're using "index.php" as some kind of framework system, you can consider defining a variable that stores the address of common files such as:

define('APPLICATION_PATH', realpath(dirname(__FILE__));
define('PHPFILES_PATH', APPLICAITON_PATH . '/includes/phpFiles/');

Upvotes: 0

Niet the Dark Absol
Niet the Dark Absol

Reputation: 324690

Use an absolute path.

require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/includes/phpFiles/processInput.php");

Use a similar form for all your required files and they will work no matter where you are.

Upvotes: 7

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