Get relative path to a parent directory

Question

I have a scenario where I want to get a path back to a specific parent directory. Here is an example folder strcuture ([something] is a folder)

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Answer 1

You can use .. to get into the parent directory:

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

Answer 2

I would make sure that you always know the root of your site so that you can take it from there.

To do that, you could go at least two ways:

• Include a config file that defines your site-root and prepend that root to every include like (in case of a constant):
  include MY_SITE_ROOT . '/path/to/file.php';
• Use a server variable to achieve the same like:
  include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/path/to/file.php';