Question

I know this subject has been discussed in SO but yet I wasn’t able to find a solution.

I have assign.php:

$a=1;

require.php:

require "assign.php";

and echo.php:

require "require.php"
echo $a;

which outputs 1.
problem is, when I want to use “require.php” from a different location, without having duplicate files. for example,

/folder/echo.php:

require "../require.php";
echo $a;

won’t work, since require.php is trying to require /folder/assign.php which doesn’t exist.

Trying to use a full url in require.php:

require "http://site.com/assign.php";

won’t work either because the code isn’t being included, but compiled, and since $a is not global, it is undefiend.

I was told by some that using globals is really not recommended.

Also using a filesystem full path is said to be dangerous.

What is the solution? How can I make sure require.php will always go for the right path for assign.php, no matter where require.php is included from?

Answer 1

You could define a global constant and use that.

define('ROOT_PATH', rtrim(dirname(__FILE__), "\\/"));

require ROOT_PATH . '/file.php';