fifeclub — Mon, 23 Dec 2002 16:23:38 +0000

Last update from me on this subject. I started putting the DOCUMENT_ROOT method of calling my header on every page. It worked fine everywhere until I got to my photo album area ("Gallery"). For some unknown reason DOCUMENT_ROOT won't work here, but the 'full path' method does. So that seems to be the best solution for avoiding errors. (I guess)

Abhishek Reddy — Mon, 23 Dec 2002 07:18:49 +0000

Quote: From PHP.net
The documentation below also applies to require(). The two constructs are identical in every way except how they handle failure. include() produces a Warning while require() results in a Fatal Error. In other words, use require() if you want a missing file to halt processing of the page. include() does not behave this way, the script will continue regardless.

Renegade — Mon, 23 Dec 2002 06:43:57 +0000

Quote: Originally posted by fifeclub
Is there an advantage/disadvantage to using require instead of include?

yeah, i've been wondering that my self, I usually use the require instead if include - I just didn't want to make a new thread about it...

fifeclub — Mon, 23 Dec 2002 04:17:15 +0000

Thanks everybody. What I ended up doing was taking everybody's suggestions and a ton of examples from php.net and I tested all of them. Out of 12 testpages, I got 3 methods to work (call the other page and properly pass the variable to that other page). One way was using the ../ but I found that it could be dependant on how many folders down you were so that left two ways:

1) include("$DOCUMENT_ROOT/includes/header.php");
(and a 'require' version of this document_root method)
2) include "/home/mikesus/public_html/includes/header.php";
(which is just using the full path name)

One final question though. An alternate 'cousin' of the document_root method worked but used "require" instead of "include".
( require($DOCUMENT_ROOT . "/includes/header2.php"); )
Is there an advantage/disadvantage to using require instead of include?

Suzanne — Mon, 23 Dec 2002 02:43:35 +0000

heh, I meant for fifeclub to look around.

mairving — Mon, 23 Dec 2002 02:28:10 +0000

Quote: Originally posted by Suzanne
Right, and Dean's solution was to make $DOCUMENT_ROOT a smaller variable for multiple uses.

Yeah, I guess if I would have clicked on that link and looked around. Using $DOCUMENT_ROOT is a quick and dirty approach. A better solution generally is creating at least two variables. One that is the Root or whichever directory you want to be root and another variable for the system path (i.e. /home/username/directory). The second variable is useful for calling stuff that is in directories under the www directory which means that they won't show up over the web. A good place to stick usernames and passwords for databases.

Suzanne — Sun, 22 Dec 2002 16:10:37 +0000

Right, and Dean's solution was to make $DOCUMENT_ROOT a smaller variable for multiple uses.

mairving — Sun, 22 Dec 2002 12:44:39 +0000

Try using this:

<?php
include(\"$DOCUMENT_ROOT/test.php\");
?>

This will bring up the file to your public_html directory which would translate to http://yoursite.com/test.php

zollet — Sun, 22 Dec 2002 08:08:15 +0000

/ = root directory (in PHP it's the server's root dir, but in HTML it's your domain's root dir)
./ = same directory
../ = One directory back
../../ = Two directories back

If you can't get it to work, then write us the FULL URL where your PHP script is, and also where is the file you're trying to include. This way it will be a lot easier for us to help you.

Busy — Sun, 22 Dec 2002 06:09:07 +0000

if ../ didnt work, try ../../ or even ../../foldername/

it all depends where the folders are and from where your starting from. example using a folder 2 back, 1 over is different if the calling files is in a upper directory than the lower one
Take a quick peek at [url=http://ezhtml.net/ezgraphics.html]here[/ur] for a directory tree example (third way down)