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Brian Enos
10,468 PointsIntroducing Constants: Difference between "BASE_URL" and "ROOT_PATH
In this video, I'm a bit confused about the difference between the "BASE_URL", and ROOT_PATH" constants in this example.
<?php
define ("BASE_URL", "/shirts4mike_local/");
define ("ROOT_PATH", $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/shirts4mike_local/");
Do these two constants not point to the same location? If not, what is the difference? Thanks for any help.
3 Answers
Ben Falk
3,167 PointsThe easiest way to test this would be to do a quick echo of both constants, and view the difference.
My understanding is that the two items have slightly different purposes.
-- The BASE_URL is useful when you need to use the project's URL for some reason, perhaps to include in a URL to a CSS or Javascript file.
-- The ROOT_PATH uses $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'], which you can learn more about here: http://php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.server.php. DOCUMENT_ROOT will give you absolute path to document root of the website in server's file system, for example, "/var/www/domain/", which would be useful for using PHP's include() function (or anything else that needs a file path), which has to use a path to the included file, and can't use a URL.
Hope that helps?
Pavle Lucic
10,801 PointsHave problem with including config.php file.
In his video, Randy including config.php file into receipt.php (required_once is used), and that is fine. BUT, he doesnt include in header.php, and he calls defined CONSTANTS in it? Could someone explain Am I wrong ?
Ngai Long Chan
2,862 PointsCause you have missed that moment. Randy did include config.php in header.php
Kristi Smythe
10,665 PointsSome local server configurations (mine) toss a fatal error with a config.php file name conflict, so I changed the config.php for this project to siteConfig.php
David Rynn
10,554 PointsDavid Rynn
10,554 PointsTo clarify the OP's question: if understand correctly, BASE_URL is for browser side (client side) paths. That is the operation will occur in the browser. ROOT_PATH is for server side operations - that is the operation (the include) will happen on the server side.
So for includes/requires in php, which is running on the server side, it needs a "ROOT_PATH". For links/ref, etc, where you're trying to include a css or javascript file, that occurs on in the browser, you would use "BASE_URL".