[PHP] File Roots & Path Functions

[s-p-n]

These two functions are great for CMS engines that work with files & folders + data in a database.

This first one calculates the path back to the root with a given file and root. It returns '../../../' depending on the depth of the tree.

Version 1

function pathToRoot($root,$file) 
{
    /*  Function: pathToRoot() created by `s-p-n` For: `WysGui.com`
    pathToRoot calculates and returns the path from a specified file back to the specified root. 
    Example:
        pathToRoot($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'],$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'])
        (returns the path from a remote file back to the host)
    
    */
    $r = count(explode('/',$root));$f = count(explode('/',$file));

    for($i=1;$i<($f-$r);$i++) 
    {
        $str .= '../';
    }
    return $str;
} 

I personally use this function on every page in the header.php file.
I call it $_root because it helps me coordinate through HTML like I do in flash.
So I call this var in header.php:

$_root = pathToRoot($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'],$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']); 

And on my Nav bar all of the links are $_root.$url. If there is no root, no problem. When a root comes up, again, no problem. (as long as the nav links are relative, of course ;)
--------------------------------------------------------------
This second function is a fix for some glitches in $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] that shows query strings, seizes to show the index as default when the user is visiting a folder. This function returns "path/to/file.ext".

Expanded Version:

function wysgui_uri($index) 
{
    /*  Function: wysgui_uri() created by `s-p-n` For: `WysGui.com`
        $index is optional, default is 'index.php'
        Finds this URL and strips all the crap out. 
        Opens door for smooth coordination between files & MySQL data
        If no page is found, it must be root/folder/index.php 
        (wysgui.com -> index.php, wysgui.com/folder -> folder/index.php)
        Example, might be blank for 'wysgui.com/', but we know it's index.php.
    */

    $cleanURL = preg_replace('/[?]|'.$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'].'/','',substr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'],1));
    $cond = strspn('.',$cleanURL);
    $t = $cleanURL;
    $f = strlen($index)>0?$index:'index.php';
    
    if(!$cond)
    {
        $t.=$f;
    }
    
    return $t;
} 

Collapsed Version:

function wysgui_uri($index)
{
    /*  Function: wysgui_uri() created by `s-p-n` For: `WysGui.com`
        $index is optional, default is 'index.php'
        Finds this URL and strips all the crap out. 
        Opens door for smooth coordination between files & MySQL data
        If no page is found, it must be root/folder/index.php 
        (wysgui.com -> index.php, wysgui.com/folder -> folder/index.php)
        Purpose: $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] might be blank for 'wysgui.com/', but we know it's index.php. 
        It also might contain query strings and junk we don't want.
    */
    $cleanURL = preg_replace('/[?]|'.$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'].'/','',substr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'],1));
    
    return strspn('.',$cleanURL)?$cleanURL:$cleanURL.(strlen($index)>0?$index:'index.php');
} 

I hope these functions are of use to people ;)

The point for both these functions is destroyed when you decide not to use relative paths. However, if you are going to make a CMS that stores all of the pages with relative paths, (which allows the whole site to be moved from folder-to-folder or across domains), you can do as I do using this system originally developed for http://www.wysgui.com. Nav links are never messed up, and the pageData in the database will have stored the relative page paths; [ which links up exactly with wysgui_uri() ].

If there's a function like either of these default with PHP that'd be cool but I haven't seen one yet, so enjoy.

[MentaL]

[Daevius]

Nice one. Back in my PHP days I always used mod_rewrite, which caused wrong paths to files, this was my way to prevent it:

// Get the number of '../' to be placed in front of a redirection. This is to prevent page mismatching that comes with mod_rewrite
function get_relative_dir($actual_dir, $request_dir)
{
    if ($actual_dir{strlen($actual_dir)-1} == '/')
    {
        $actual_dir = substr($actual_dir, 0, -1);
    }
    elseif (!strlen($actual_dir))
    {
        $actual_dir = '.';
    }
    
    if ($request_dir{strlen($request_dir)-1} != '/')
    {
        $request_dir = dirname($request_dir);
    }
    elseif($actual_dir.'/' == $request_dir)
    {
        return './';
    }

    $relative_path = '';
    while ($actual_dir != $request_dir && strlen($request_dir) > strlen($actual_dir))
    {
        $request_dir = dirname($request_dir);
        $relative_path .= '../';
    }    

    if (!$relative_path)
    {
        return './';
    }    
    return $relative_path;
}

// Define the directories
define('RELATIVE_DIR', get_relative_dir(dirname($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']), urldecode($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']))); 

Now, in front of any link I would put this constant variable:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php echo RELATIVE_DIR; ?>style.css" type="text/css">

<a href="<?php echo RELATIVE_DIR.'link/to/page'; ?>">Link to page</a>