Absolute vs. relative paths

Question

If I use absolute paths, I can\'t move the whole directory to a new location. If I use relative paths, I can\'t move individual files to new locations.

What\'s the s

Answer 1

I always use absolute paths, but I also start any custom PHP project with a bootstrap file where I define the most commonly used paths as constants, based on values extracted from $_SERVER.

This is how I define my root paths :

define("LOCAL_PATH_ROOT", $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]);
define("HTTP_PATH_ROOT", isset($_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"]) ? $_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"] : (isset($_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"]) ? $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"] : '_UNKNOWN_'));

The path LOCAL_PATH_ROOT is the document root. The path HTTP_PATH_ROOT is the equivalent when accessing the same path via HTTP.

At that point, converting any local path to an HTTP path can be done with the following code :

str_replace(LOCAL_PATH_ROOT, RELATIVE_PATH_ROOT, $my_path)

If you want to ensure compatibility with Windows based servers, you'll need to replace the directory seperator with a URL seperator as well :

str_replace(LOCAL_PATH_ROOT, RELATIVE_PATH_ROOT, str_replace(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, '/', $my_path))

Here's the full bootstrap code that I'm using for the PHP PowerTools boilerplate :

defined('LOCAL_PATH_BOOTSTRAP') || define("LOCAL_PATH_BOOTSTRAP", __DIR__);

// -----------------------------------------------------------------------
// DEFINE SEPERATOR ALIASES
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------
define("URL_SEPARATOR", '/');
define("DS", DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR);
define("PS", PATH_SEPARATOR);
define("US", URL_SEPARATOR);

// -----------------------------------------------------------------------
// DEFINE ROOT PATHS
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------
define("RELATIVE_PATH_ROOT", '');
define("LOCAL_PATH_ROOT", $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]);
define("HTTP_PATH_ROOT",
        isset($_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"]) ?
        $_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"] : (
        isset($_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"]) ?
        $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"] : '_UNKNOWN_'));

// -----------------------------------------------------------------------
// DEFINE RELATIVE PATHS
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------
define("RELATIVE_PATH_BASE",
        str_replace(LOCAL_PATH_ROOT, RELATIVE_PATH_ROOT, getcwd()));
define("RELATIVE_PATH_APP", dirname(RELATIVE_PATH_BASE));
define("RELATIVE_PATH_LIBRARY", RELATIVE_PATH_APP . DS . 'vendor');
define("RELATIVE_PATH_HELPERS", RELATIVE_PATH_BASE);
define("RELATIVE_PATH_TEMPLATE", RELATIVE_PATH_BASE . DS . 'templates');
define("RELATIVE_PATH_CONFIG", RELATIVE_PATH_BASE . DS . 'config');
define("RELATIVE_PATH_PAGES", RELATIVE_PATH_BASE . DS . 'pages');
define("RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET", RELATIVE_PATH_BASE . DS . 'assets');
define("RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET_IMG", RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET . DS . 'img');
define("RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET_CSS", RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET . DS . 'css');
define("RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET_JS", RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET . DS . 'js');

// -----------------------------------------------------------------------
// DEFINE LOCAL PATHS
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------
define("LOCAL_PATH_BASE", LOCAL_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_BASE);
define("LOCAL_PATH_APP", LOCAL_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_APP);
define("LOCAL_PATH_LIBRARY", LOCAL_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_LIBRARY);
define("LOCAL_PATH_HELPERS", LOCAL_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_HELPERS);
define("LOCAL_PATH_TEMPLATE", LOCAL_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_TEMPLATE);
define("LOCAL_PATH_CONFIG", LOCAL_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_CONFIG);
define("LOCAL_PATH_PAGES", LOCAL_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_PAGES);
define("LOCAL_PATH_ASSET", LOCAL_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET);
define("LOCAL_PATH_ASSET_IMG", LOCAL_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET_IMG);
define("LOCAL_PATH_ASSET_CSS", LOCAL_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET_CSS);
define("LOCAL_PATH_ASSET_JS", LOCAL_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET_JS);

// -----------------------------------------------------------------------
// DEFINE URL PATHS
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------
if (US === DS) { // needed for compatibility with windows
    define("HTTP_PATH_BASE", HTTP_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_BASE);
    define("HTTP_PATH_APP", HTTP_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_APP);
    define("HTTP_PATH_LIBRARY", false);
    define("HTTP_PATH_HELPERS", false);
    define("HTTP_PATH_TEMPLATE", false);
    define("HTTP_PATH_CONFIG", false);
    define("HTTP_PATH_PAGES", false);
    define("HTTP_PATH_ASSET", HTTP_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET);
    define("HTTP_PATH_ASSET_IMG", HTTP_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET_IMG);
    define("HTTP_PATH_ASSET_CSS", HTTP_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET_CSS);
    define("HTTP_PATH_ASSET_JS", HTTP_PATH_ROOT . RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET_JS);
} else {
    define("HTTP_PATH_BASE", HTTP_PATH_ROOT .
            str_replace(DS, US, RELATIVE_PATH_BASE));
    define("HTTP_PATH_APP", HTTP_PATH_ROOT .
            str_replace(DS, US, RELATIVE_PATH_APP));
    define("HTTP_PATH_LIBRARY", false);
    define("HTTP_PATH_HELPERS", false);
    define("HTTP_PATH_TEMPLATE", false);
    define("HTTP_PATH_CONFIG", false);
    define("HTTP_PATH_PAGES", false);
    define("HTTP_PATH_ASSET", HTTP_PATH_ROOT .
            str_replace(DS, US, RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET));
    define("HTTP_PATH_ASSET_IMG", HTTP_PATH_ROOT .
            str_replace(DS, US, RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET_IMG));
    define("HTTP_PATH_ASSET_CSS", HTTP_PATH_ROOT .
            str_replace(DS, US, RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET_CSS));
    define("HTTP_PATH_ASSET_JS", HTTP_PATH_ROOT .
            str_replace(DS, US, RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET_JS));
}

// -----------------------------------------------------------------------
// DEFINE REQUEST PARAMETERS
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------
define("REQUEST_QUERY",
        isset($_SERVER["QUERY_STRING"]) && $_SERVER["QUERY_STRING"] != '' ?
        $_SERVER["QUERY_STRING"] : false);
define("REQUEST_METHOD",
        isset($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"]) ?
        strtoupper($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"]) : false);
define("REQUEST_STATUS",
        isset($_SERVER["REDIRECT_STATUS"]) ?
        $_SERVER["REDIRECT_STATUS"] : false);
define("REQUEST_PROTOCOL",
        isset($_SERVER["HTTP_ORIGIN"]) ?
        substr($_SERVER["HTTP_ORIGIN"], 0,
        strpos($_SERVER["HTTP_ORIGIN"], '://') + 3) : 'http://');
define("REQUEST_PATH",
        isset($_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]) ?
        str_replace(RELATIVE_PATH_BASE, '',
        $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]) : '_UNKNOWN_');
define("REQUEST_PATH_STRIP_QUERY",
        REQUEST_QUERY ?
        str_replace('?' . REQUEST_QUERY, '', REQUEST_PATH) : REQUEST_PATH);

// -----------------------------------------------------------------------
// DEFINE SITE PARAMETERS
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------
define("PRODUCTION", false);
define("PAGE_PATH_DEFAULT", US . 'index');
define("PAGE_PATH",
        (REQUEST_PATH_STRIP_QUERY === US) ?
        PAGE_PATH_DEFAULT : REQUEST_PATH_STRIP_QUERY);

If you add the above code to your own project, outputting all user constants at this point (which can do with get_defined_constants(true) should give a result that looks somewhat like this :

array (
  'LOCAL_PATH_BOOTSTRAP' => '/var/www/libraries/backend/Data/examples',
  'URL_SEPARATOR' => '/',
  'DS' => '/',
  'PS' => ':',
  'US' => '/',
  'RELATIVE_PATH_ROOT' => '',
  'LOCAL_PATH_ROOT' => '/var/www',
  'HTTP_PATH_ROOT' => 'localhost:8888',
  'RELATIVE_PATH_BASE' => '/libraries/backend/Data/examples',
  'RELATIVE_PATH_APP' => '/libraries/backend/Data',
  'RELATIVE_PATH_LIBRARY' => '/libraries/backend/Data/vendor',
  'RELATIVE_PATH_HELPERS' => '/libraries/backend/Data/examples',
  'RELATIVE_PATH_TEMPLATE' => '/libraries/backend/Data/examples/templates',
  'RELATIVE_PATH_CONFIG' => '/libraries/backend/Data/examples/config',
  'RELATIVE_PATH_PAGES' => '/libraries/backend/Data/examples/pages',
  'RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET' => '/libraries/backend/Data/examples/assets',
  'RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET_IMG' => '/libraries/backend/Data/examples/assets/img',
  'RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET_CSS' => '/libraries/backend/Data/examples/assets/css',
  'RELATIVE_PATH_ASSET_JS' => '/libraries/backend/Data/examples/assets/js',
  'LOCAL_PATH_BASE' => '/var/www/libraries/backend/Data/examples',
  'LOCAL_PATH_APP' => '/var/www/libraries/backend/Data',
  'LOCAL_PATH_LIBRARY' => '/var/www/libraries/backend/Data/vendor',
  'LOCAL_PATH_HELPERS' => '/var/www/libraries/backend/Data/examples',
  'LOCAL_PATH_TEMPLATE' => '/var/www/libraries/backend/Data/examples/templates',
  'LOCAL_PATH_CONFIG' => '/var/www/libraries/backend/Data/examples/config',
  'LOCAL_PATH_PAGES' => '/var/www/libraries/backend/Data/examples/pages',
  'LOCAL_PATH_ASSET' => '/var/www/libraries/backend/Data/examples/assets',
  'LOCAL_PATH_ASSET_IMG' => '/var/www/libraries/backend/Data/examples/assets/img',
  'LOCAL_PATH_ASSET_CSS' => '/var/www/libraries/backend/Data/examples/assets/css',
  'LOCAL_PATH_ASSET_JS' => '/var/www/libraries/backend/Data/examples/assets/js',
  'HTTP_PATH_BASE' => 'localhost:8888/libraries/backend/Data/examples',
  'HTTP_PATH_APP' => 'localhost:8888/libraries/backend/Data',
  'HTTP_PATH_LIBRARY' => false,
  'HTTP_PATH_HELPERS' => false,
  'HTTP_PATH_TEMPLATE' => false,
  'HTTP_PATH_CONFIG' => false,
  'HTTP_PATH_PAGES' => false,
  'HTTP_PATH_ASSET' => 'localhost:8888/libraries/backend/Data/examples/assets',
  'HTTP_PATH_ASSET_IMG' => 'localhost:8888/libraries/backend/Data/examples/assets/img',
  'HTTP_PATH_ASSET_CSS' => 'localhost:8888/libraries/backend/Data/examples/assets/css',
  'HTTP_PATH_ASSET_JS' => 'localhost:8888/libraries/backend/Data/examples/assets/js',
  'REQUEST_QUERY' => false,
  'REQUEST_METHOD' => 'GET',
  'REQUEST_STATUS' => false,
  'REQUEST_PROTOCOL' => 'http://',
  'REQUEST_PATH' => '/',
  'REQUEST_PATH_STRIP_QUERY' => '/',
  'PRODUCTION' => false,
  'PAGE_PATH_DEFAULT' => '/index',
  'PAGE_PATH' => '/index',
)