PHP - structuring folders, paths, templates

Question

I have a question about templating my php project.

Currently my folder structure looks like this:

/Root
|index.php
|_footer.php
|_header.php
|_nav.php
|
|site_1.php
|site_2.php
|
|css/
|js/
|images/
|subfolder1
   |site_3.php
   |site_4.php
   |subfolder2
      |site_5.php

I usually include "_header" and "_footer.php" in my index.php file, but I have problems with subfolder pages. For example, my _header.php has an include "_nav.php". But when I include the _header.php in the site_4.php I get the problems with the assets and navigation.

I read to make a config file to define site url, asset paths etc, but It's not so clear to me. Ideally I would like to have an "assets" folder with subfolders for css, js etc.

Also I would like to know who can I with include "_nav.php" with site_url(). I tried that out, but I always get errors. The main question is, how to make the site_url, base url (at this point I'm still confused about those terms and how to use them) Thank you.

Have a file in the root which has a `define` which contains the path to the ROOT of your project and you'll be fine. But if your question is asking the best way to structure your projects that will most definitely be class as *primarily opinionated*. — Script47, Sep 07 '17 at 08:27
Have a read of an earlier answer I put - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46009282/why-is-not-being-recognized-as-current-directory-in-my-php-file/46011261#46011261 — Nigel Ren, Sep 07 '17 at 08:39

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 07 '17 at 09:14

Because you're using pure PHP (no framework being used) this is a bit tricky. There are several ways to solve this, I'd suggest the following:

In your Root folder, create new file, let's name it "base.php", which has the content of:

<?php
// This is base.php
define('ROOT_PATH', realpath(dirname(__FILE__)));

Now, in each of your site pages like (site_1.php, subfolder1/site_3.php, etc.) include the base.php file:

<?php
// This is site_1.php
require_once 'base.php';
// ...

In subfolder site pages, include it like this:

<?php
// This is subfolder1/site_3.php
require_once '../base.php';
// ...

If deeper site page, include it like this:

<?php
// This is subfolder1/subfolder2/site_5.php
require_once '../../base.php';
// ...

Now, in any php file, if you want to include another php file (like _nav.php), you can include it like this:

<?php
// This is _header.php
require_once ROOT_PATH . '/_nav.php';
// ...
?>
<!-- to include any css/js/images files, it would be like this: -->
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/my_css.css">
<script src="/js/my_js.js"></script>
<img src="/images/my_image.jpg">

I didn't test the code, but it should work.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 07 '17 at 09:33

What you're looking for is the HTML base tag. This will make every relative link use the specified base.

ie. having this in your head:

<head>
    <base href="http://www.yoursite.com/assets/" />
</head>

...will make the following code load the image from the assets folder:

<img src="image.jpg" />

See: https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_base.asp

PHP - structuring folders, paths, templates

2 Answers2