Question

Is there a way to prevent a user viewing an file but still use it as included to another file in PHP?

Answer 1

If you use

define('APP_RAN'); 

in the file that includes it and then put

if(!defined('APP_RAN')){ die(); }

or alternatively

defined('APP_RAN') or die();

(which is easier to read)

in included files it would die if you access them directly.

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It would probably be better to put all of your included files above your DocumentRoot though.

For example, if your index page is at

/my/server/domain/public_html

You should put the included files in

/my/server/domain/