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PHP

Pavle Lucic
Pavle Lucic
10,801 Points
Posted by Pavle Lucic
Pavle Lucic
10,801 Points

Using Root-Relative Web Addresses - problem with path

Have problem with linking files with root relative method.

By adding "/" before some file in link.

My files in Xampp is organized in this way: xampp/htdocs/root/shirts4mike/

by adding "/" in header.php for example a href="/shirts.php", it will target this path xampp/htdocs/shirts.php ->cant find file

I figured out that root relative web address in my case could be "/root/shirts4mike/" . It works the same as Randy presented at the end of the video.

But, what will happen when I transfer files to the web host?

  1. Do I need to change root relative address?
  2. Is there any better solution for this?

For example to store in variable root relative web address? Or maybe to somehow define what is my root folder trought some Php method?

Help

2 Answers

Jeremy Menicucci
Jeremy Menicucci
19,227 Points

An easy thing to do is create a constant (which I believe Randy covers in the videos at some point, not sure if you're there yet). Something like, 

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

I'm not too familiar with XAMP, but it would seem that you would want to do your local environment like this, 

define("ROOT", $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/root/shirts4mike/");
thomascawthorn
thomascawthorn
22,985 Points

Constants are really great and Randy does indeed take you through those later in the video. Root relative paths will work on a server - after all they're relative! As long as the files don't change in relation to each other, root relative paths will work wherever. They're just a bugger to maintain, and break easily, which is why he goes through better methods in a few videos time.

Hope that helps