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Asked: 2026-06-11T13:36:13+00:00

I’ve got problems with sorting out the paths in my app. I’m using APPPATH

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I’ve got problems with sorting out the paths in my app.

I’m using APPPATH function to read/write my images’s string path in my db. The problem is that the APPPATH puts the function after the controller

here is my function for getting the css

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<?php echo '../' . APPPATH.'_data/css/style.css'; ?>" />

and when i go to http://localhost/project/index.php/home it works great
css links to http://localhost/project/application/_data/css/style.css which is correct

but then I have this other controller 

http://localhost/project/index.php/member/index/1

The css file path has to be 

href="<?php echo '../../../' . APPPATH."_data/css/style.css"; ?>"

because other wise my link to the css goes to 

http://localhost/project/index.php/member/application/_data/css/style.css

I’m using a simple template structure where i have my header/content/footer in an include sub-folder in views and I’m sending data to the content. Pretty standard stuff. I just don’t get why the APPPATH does not work as if when called it gives me the PATH to the APPLICATION folder regardless the class that’s been used.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    APPPATH is really for system files, not frontend assets. It’s the path to your application folder, and that’s what it should be used for. ../relative/paths rarely work well in Codeigniter since they are relative from the current URL (not the view file). This is really a mess you’re getting into.

    Simple solution is to use base_url() instead, but if you want shorter paths, this is what I use:

    define('BASE_URI', str_replace('index.php', '', $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']));

    In most cases, the result will be /, but this will account for CI installations in sub directories. For you, it should return /project/.

    It’s not recommended to keep static files like CSS and images mixed into your application files. Most people create a directory called assets or public to store them.

    <link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php echo BASE_URI.'public/css/style.css'; ?>" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php echo base_url().'assets/css/style.css'; ?>" />

    If you really need to store assets in your application folder, then just drop all the relative paths. You don’t need them since APPPATH is absolute:

    <link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php echo APPPATH.'_data/css/style.css'; ?>" />

    That should work from everywhere.

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