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PHP Enhancing a Simple PHP Application Cleaning URLs with Subfolders Introducing Constants

David Wall
David Wall
11,088 Points
Posted by David Wall
David Wall
11,088 Points

ROOT_PATH not working.

I can't include the header.php or footer.php using ROOT_PATH.

My config.php file is as follows(it's in the inc folder at the root):

<?php

define("BASE_URL", "/");
define("ROOT_PATH", $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT" . "/"]);

My index.php file is as follows(it's in the receipt folder at the root):

<?php

include_once("../config.php");
$pageTitle = "Thank you for your order!";
$section = "none";
include(ROOT_PATH . "inc/header.php");

?>

6 Answers

Jason Anello
Jason Anello
Courses Plus Student 94,610 Points

Hi David,

I don't think you have the correct relative path to your config file.

If your index file is in the "receipt" folder then you would need to go up one level then down into the "inc" folder.

include_once("../inc/config.php");

Try making that change as well as the one Chris pointed out and let us know what happened.

Jeremy Hayden
Jeremy Hayden
1,740 Points
Jeremy Hayden
Jeremy Hayden
1,740 Points

Try echoing out your root path to see if its working

Chris Shaw
Chris Shaw
26,676 Points
Chris Shaw
Chris Shaw
26,676 Points

Hi David,

You have a syntax error in your constant which needs to be resolved, currently you have the below which if you look closely you have concatenated your path onto the key name DOCUMENT_ROOT which should be on the other side of the closing square bracket.

define("ROOT_PATH", $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT" . "/"]);

Should be:

define("ROOT_PATH", $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/");

Happy coding.

David Wall
David Wall
11,088 Points
David Wall
David Wall
11,088 Points

Thanks for the replies. Thanks Chris. Sorry, i did have it that way before. I've redone this part so many times. It still doesn't work. Jeremy, i ran this:

<?php

include_once("../config.php"); echo ROOT_PATH; $pageTitle = "Thank you for your order!"; $section = "none"; include(ROOT_PATH . "/inc/header.php"); ?>

with this in the config:

<?php

define("BASE_URL", "/"); define("ROOT_PATH", $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/");

The result is the words "ROOT_PATH" being echoed, not the actual path. So the ROOT_PATH isn't actually being defined...right?

Jeremy Hayden
Jeremy Hayden
1,740 Points
Jeremy Hayden
Jeremy Hayden
1,740 Points

Just to check off the possibility that your config file does not have any errors, and is actually loading into main file, put a test echo at the end of it.

In fact, i would put 2 echos, a simple test, and the rootpath.

David Wall
David Wall
11,088 Points
David Wall
David Wall
11,088 Points

Thanks Jason. That's definitely it!