Make sure PHP script path is correct if used in other scripts

Question

Writing code in PHP, how can I ensure the require_once path of a script is translated correctly regardless of where the calling script is?

Assuming a folder structure of:

ROOT
    {subfolder
    {subfolderX

In my "script A" which is in a subfolder called scripts it requires another script in another subfolder called "script B," so my require looks like

require_once("../subfolderX/script B");

This all works okay. But if I call script A from another script which is say up a level such as:

require_once("subfolder/script A");

The call to script B doesn't work becasue it's now relative to the new calling script.

What is the correct technique here to ensure the path stays relative to the calling script?

FtDRbwLXw6 · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-23 17:00:19Z

1

Use the PHP magic constant __DIR__, which will point to the directory that the script resides in. In other words, do this:

require_once __DIR__ . '/../subfolderX/script B';

Instead of this:

require_once '../subfolderX/script B';

answered Jan 23, 2012 at 17:00

FtDRbwLXw6

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1 Comment

Ray Over a year ago

Great answer - thank you. ANother snippet for the memory bank. I needed to add a str replace to make the forward slashes backslashes from the DIR constant but all good and working. Thanks

rauschen · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-23 16:57:42Z

1

One is you work with a constant in your hole project ..

require_once(ROOT."subfolder/script A");

Second is to put your root director to include_path in your php.ini and make all paths relative to this root directory

answered Jan 23, 2012 at 16:57

rauschen

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2 Comments

Ray Over a year ago

Thanks for this. I thought setting constants could be problematic if your not too careful. I went for the DIR method above as appeared to be more transportable? maybe??

rauschen Over a year ago

I like this version more because the path to the libs are the same in every file .. disadvantage is that the IDE support for clicking the included file to change to it works not so good in this version ..

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