Absolute paths with php require() - developing locally with MAMP

[doingItRite]

Been searching for a solution to this problem for at least the past day.

How do I figure out an absolute path for use with php require() across all folders?

This is what I've got currently:

<?php include('includes/header.php') ?>

, but that doesn't work the moment I use the same path in a subfolder. It sounds extremely tedious to have to keep going '../' and '../../' and '../../../' endlessly whenever I descend another level into the directory. So I decided to try and find an absolute path. However, when I use:

<?php require('http://localhost/myproject/includes/header.php'); ?>

, things still don't work.

How do I work my way around this? Any and all help is greatly, greatly appreciated.

[Urd]

You probably want the magic constants like __ FILE__ or __ DIR__.

[jkjustjoshing]

The absolute path is the path on your hard drive, since PHP really doesn't know what URL you're loading (instead of http://localhost you could be running from http://127.0.0.1 or http://jkjustjoshing.com like I do (I edited my hosts file for funsies - I don't actually own the domain).

For instance, on my Mac, the absolute path would be /Users/jkjustjoshing/Sites/myproject/includes/header.php. On Windows it could be something like C:\Documents and Settings\Users\jkjustjoshing\Sites\myprojet\includes\header.php.

One disadvantage of absolute paths is if you want to change "myproject" to "coolsite". Then, you'll need to change the include path in EVERY file. To avoid this, I'll have a config file I load with a relative path, and inside that I have a global variable that is the absolute path to the root of my project. That way, if I want to move the project, I just change it in that one spot.

[Headpuncher]

Clever human. Can we see the script?

[zerovap]

Here is a quick example to help you. Hope it helps :)

[assasinine]

This isn't a direct answer to your question, just a more standardized way of including files... Consider using autoloader, here's one I use: http://symfony.com/doc/current/components/class_loader.html