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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-27T03:07:49+00:00

My file structure: /holiday/admin/list.php /holiday/includes/functions.php # common functions /holiday/index.php # / is the document

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My file structure:

/holiday/admin/list.php
/holiday/includes/functions.php   # common functions
/holiday/index.php

# / is the document root
# /holiday/ is a "self-contained" sub-directory
# There are other "self-contained" sub-directories e.g. /promotion/, /international/

In functions.php I have a common function to generate the <head> part of an HTML; also, a function to return an absolute path from the document root. Note my attempt to calculate /holiday/includes/.

<? function get_path() {
  // Technically, this returns dirname(__FILE__) - $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']
  return str_replace($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'], "", dirname(__FILE__)); 
} ?>

<? function open_page($head = "", $body_id = "") { ?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="<? echo get_path() . "/../css/savvyextras.css"; ?>" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="<? echo get_path() . "/../scripts/modernizr.js"; ?>"></script>
...
<? } ?>

functions.php is included this way:

// From list.php
require_once('../includes/functions.php');
open_page(...);

// From index.php
require_once('./includes/functions.php');
open_page(...);

I feel like there must be a more straightforward approach to accomplish the same thing here. Any built-in PHP function for my get_path()? Maybe I should approach my problem differently?

Note:
Some folks suggested using a framework (which is a good thing). But, to help me (and others) understand this whole include-file thing, other non-framework explanations?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    After experimenting more with this and gathering other inputs, I find using constant will do the trick:

    # functions.php

define('PREFIX', '/holiday');

<? function open_page($head = "", $body_id = "") { ?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="<?php echo PREFIX; ?>/css/savvyextras.css"; ?>" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="<?php echo PREFIX; ?>/scripts/modernizr.js"; ?>"></script>
...
<? } ?>

    So, if you need to move /holiday/ to a different sub-directory e.g. /vacation/, you’d simply need to change one constant i.e. PREFIX.

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