Work with paths on localserver and normalserver

Question

I have a problem. I want to use a localserver (WAMP) and an online server (000webhost) at the same time. Now there is a problem with my file paths. I can not use normal paths like (../contact.php) because I use php include files and then the path will be different because I include the file over the whole site.

Now I wanted to use absolute paths like (/main/includes/header.inc.php) But the root folder on the online server and local server are different, so that won't work too.

Are there any solutions I can use?

Jelmer

Answer 1

Set a web root directory constant ROOT that you can use to load your file paths. For each server set this to their path accordingly. Make sure that is loaded at the top of the first file hit for each request.

<?php
define('ROOT', `/var/www/html/site`);
...

now load your files with the constant

include ROOT . '/directory/file.php';

Obviously set constant different for each server.

You could put your define() in an if statement as well.

<?php
if($_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] === 'localhost'){
    define('ROOT','/wamp/dir/'); //obviously not your actual dir
}else{
    define('ROOT','/online/dir/'); //obviously not your actual dir 
}

UPDATE

Better idea might beusing environment variables instead of conts.

Setting CONST on every page is a bit tedious. I found this post that explains how to set an environment variable in the .htaccess. that way we only need to set it in once place and can access it in all files.

eg:

//.htaccess
SetEnv ROOT /var_www/html/site/

Now I can get this value with this in all my .php files:

<?php
include getenv('ROOT'); . '/directory/file.php';

credit:

store constant variable on server via .htaccess