• 0

PHP includes with sub folders... how?!


Question

Hey.

Im trying to change my site to use subfolders. At the moment i have all the pages, CSS and a header.php in the root. Now i have:

header.php

footer.php

index.php

css.css

products/page1.php

products/page2.php

products/page3.php

etc

The include works from index.php, but not from page1.php I understand that this is because from page2 its looking for the header.php in the products/ folder, but i dont know how to fix it. Ive tried

<?php include ('../header.php'); ?>

And that didnt work.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/626575-php-includes-with-sub-folders-how/
Share on other sites

8 answers to this question

Recommended Posts

  • 0

is the header included in the product pages? (page1.php, page2.php, page3.php etc) ?

I assume the product pages are included in index.php and the problem your having is that it cant find the header file from the product page because its looking in the wrong place, is that right? :p

I think what you need to do is take the header includes out of your pages and just put use one include header statement at the top of index.php, that way you only have one statement and its looking in the right place for it.

  • 0

Try ./ because that looks for the root folder.

If I understand you correctly your going from

products / page#.php

to

header.php in root.

If thats the case, do ./header.php and it should go to the root folder and then find header and it should.

if your going from

root

to

products/page#.php

Then do include("products/page#.php")

This is all rough but it should work.

I hope I understood you right.

Cheers.

  • 0

assuming your webhost allows you to use .htaccess to set php settings, set an includes directory. for example here's mine.

php_value include_path ".:/users/m/marc2003/includes"

i now place any common php files inside this folder. now i can call on the file simply using

include 'header.php';

folder structure is now irrelevant as php will check in my includes folder first.

  • 0
  Sikh said:
Try ./ because that looks for the root folder.

afaik, ./ is only a reference to the current working directory, it is not a link to your webroot. in this case, you may be correct, but if the script that was running is actually in mydomain.ext/some_folder/ rather than just in mydomain.ext/, then ./ would refer to the subfolder, not the root folder.

  • 0

I usually get around this by including a variable somewhere higher up that defaults to "./" and use that when trying to do my includes. Change it to manually perhaps if your in a sub directory.

Probably not best way.. you could use $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] I think which will get you the path directly to header.php if your in a sub folder.

  • 0
  marc2003 said:
assuming your webhost allows you to use .htaccess to set php settings, set an includes directory. for example here's mine.

php_value include_path ".:/users/m/marc2003/includes"

i now place any common php files inside this folder. now i can call on the file simply using

include 'header.php';

folder structure is now irrelevant as php will check in my includes folder first.

<?php

// Works as of PHP 4.3.0

set_include_path('/inc');

// Works in all PHP versions

ini_set('include_path', '/inc');

?>

  • 0

How rude of me, i completely forgot i made this thread!

Well, thanks for all the responses. Ive managed to fix it now, but ill give a nice detailed explanation of what i wanted and how i fixed it for the benefit of others.

Basically, I was trying to include my header (which is in my root directory) from a page in a sub directory.

I was able to call the header itself with

&lt;?php include ('../header.php'); ?&gt;

- but my problem was, the header contained my nav bar and my css <a href ="style.css">

By doing it this way, page in the subfolder was looking for the style.css in the subfolder directory, not in the root where it was with the header.

So, not only did i need to put

&lt;?php include ('../header.php'); ?&gt;

in each of the pages in the sub folders, i also needed to change my reference to the css to

href="/style.css"

- see the "/"

Finally, the reason i didnt use $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] is because im doing the development in a XAMPP test server on my pc - with my files not in the root. So i thought it would all screw up once i uploaded to my webserver. Plus, because im only going to need to go down to one sub folder, the "../" is a good enough solution for me.

Thanks for all the replies though - good to know theres a decent community here.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Google Search AI Mode gets support for data visualization and custom charts by Aditya Tiwari Google announced it is rolling out support for data visualizations and graphs for finance-related queries in Google Search's AI Mode. Introduced last month at the Google I/O 2025 keynote, the feature lets you analyze complex datasets and create custom charts simply using natural language prompts. The updated AI Mode lets you compare and analyze information over a specific period, Google explained. It generates interactive graphs and provides a comprehensive explanation for your questions. AI Mode utilizes Gemini's multimodal capabilities and multi-step reasoning approach to comprehend the question's intent while accessing historical and real-time information relevant to the question. For instance, instead of manually researching individual companies and their stock prices, you can use AI Mode to compare the stock performance of different companies for a specific year. Once the graph is generated, you can choose the desired time period using the mouse cursor and ask follow-up questions based on the data presented. These new data visualizations for finance queries are available to users who have enabled the AI Mode experiment in Labs. AI Mode was introduced earlier this year as an experimental feature in the US. The feature is an upgraded version of AI Overviews, and Google closely worked with AI power users through the initial development process. It uses the “query fan-out” technique to perform multiple related searches across subtopics and different data sources, then combines them to come up with a comprehensive response. Google updated AI Mode last month to use a custom version of the latest Gemini 2.5 model. It added several new features, including Deep Search, live capabilities, agentic capabilities of Project Mariner, a new shopping experience, and the ability to add personal context by linking Google apps. The search giant is planning to turn AI Mode into its bread and butter. It has begun testing ads for the feature, which will appear below and be integrated into AI Mode responses where relevant.
    • Guys, you should find another way to promote your deals... It's the third article in the last months that promote this deal for an upgrade from 10. Considering that upgrade from 10 to 11 is free it's a total non-sense.
    • Store should be a shrine of useful applications, vetted and verified. Easily sorted by publisher. Windows should start with not much installed and have things as options in the store. Not the wild west mess that it is. You could delete 95%+ of the crap on there and no one would notice. They need to add a better UI to the updates, it's awful right now.
    • Obsidian 1.9.2 brings breaking changes, UI improvements and several bug fixes by David Uzondu Obsidian 1.9.2 (Desktop) is now live, bringing some significant updates, especially if you have been using the Bases feature. If you're not familiar with Markdown, it's a simple way to write formatted text using a plain text editor; Obsidian is a free editor that lets you create and link notes using Markdown files stored right on your own computer. Obsidian is free to use, but if you support the project with a Catalyst license, you get access to early builds. Version 1.9.2 is in Early Access right now, so you'll need a Catalyst license to try it out This new version introduces some major breaking changes to Bases, so you'll want to pay attention here. The developers have overhauled the formula syntax and the .base file format itself. If you're using Obsidian Sync or sharing your vault across multiple devices, the team strongly recommends upgrading all your devices at the same time to dodge any annoying sync issues with files using different syntaxes. The new formula syntax in Bases is designed to be more flexible and easier to use, and it should feel familiar if you code in JavaScript. For instance, functions are now object-oriented; instead of writing contains(file.name, "Books"), you would now use file.name.contains("Booksou can also chain functions together, like property.split(' ').sort()[0].lower(). Other highlights include: Property names are no longer wrapped in backticks (`). Instead, to reference properties with spaces or special characters, the syntax is note["Property Name"] There is a new type system which provides greater control when writing formulas. New functions, such as link, date and list for converting a value to a different type. New file properties: file.path, file.links (a list of all internal links in this file), and file.tags (a list of all tags in this file, including frontmatter). Some functions have been replaced by comparison operators. For example, dateBefore(date1, date2) is now date1 < date2. Date modifications are now much simpler. Instead of dateModify(date, string), you can use date + string, for example, date("01/01/2025") + "1 year" For those wondering, the Bases feature was introduced back in Obsidian 1.9.0 as a way to turn notes into structured databases. You can learn more about the updated syntax here. Alongside these syntax changes, the .base file format has been updated for better extensibility, including a new properties section for configurations like displayName. There are some smaller improvements too, like Bases now showing the number of results in the current view and the operator dropdown for filters becoming searchable. Outside of Bases, the update brings fixes for the following: Tags view: Fixed "Show nested tags" showing the full tag name (e.g. #parent/child) File explorer: Fixed "Move folder to..." menu item not showing in context menu. Bases: Fixed view not closing after deleting the file. Bases: Fixed codeblock not rendering when "Indent with tabs" is enabled. On a related note, the creator of Markdown, John Gruber, recently shared his thoughts on rumors about Apple Notes potentially adding Markdown export. While he had reservations about Apple Notes becoming a full-blown Markdown editor, he seemed to think an export option would be useful. If the rumors are true, users will be able to easily export notes from Apple Notes and edit them in editors like Obsidian.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      luxoxfurniture earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • First Post
      Uranus_enjoyer earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      Uranus_enjoyer earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      jfam earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • First Post
      survivor303 earned a badge
      First Post
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      430
    2. 2
      +FloatingFatMan
      239
    3. 3
      snowy owl
      212
    4. 4
      ATLien_0
      211
    5. 5
      Xenon
      157
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!