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PHP Enhancing a Simple PHP Application Cleaning URLs with Subfolders Introducing Constants

Alexander Stanuga
Alexander Stanuga
11,999 Points
Posted by Alexander Stanuga
Alexander Stanuga
11,999 Points

Having issues getting ROOT_PATH to work, blank white page loading no CSS showing

I've been trying to resolve this same issue for a few hours now, I've read many of the posts from others in the same boat, tried the suggested solutions but I still appear to be getting a blank white page.

One post I found interesting and slightly helpful was this one ... (https://teamtreehouse.com/forum/need-help-getting-rootpath-to-work)

Michael De Marre suggested substituting define() within the config file to variables in order to create $BASE_URL and $ROOT_PATH, as shown in the code below...

    $BASE_URL = "/";
    $ROOT_PATH = $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/";

Once done I then reverted all the relevant code on the other documents to the new viable names ($ROOT_PATH & $BASE_URL).

which was fine when I go to a page by typing a specific URL i.e.: (shirts4mike/shirts.php) & (shirts4mike/receipt). These page displayed fine... BUT links back to home page don't work, and whenever I try to load the homepage I still get a blank white page

I also tried changing the folder directories such as ...

define("BASE_URL" . "/");
    define("ROOT_PATH" . $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/");

    define("BASE_URL" . "/shirts4mike/");
    define("ROOT_PATH" . $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/shirts4mike/");

    define("BASE_URL" . "shirts4mike/");
    define("ROOT_PATH" . $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "shirts4mike/");

ABSOLUTELY ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED

If it makes any difference, I'm on a Mac using MAMP Pro and redirected localhost to shirts4mike in the Hosts settings for this particular site (as I have a few others I'm working on atm).

Also, after reading this post (https://teamtreehouse.com/forum/introducing-constants-is-killing-my-soul) and with the first of the above three code snippets in play, I inserted Andrew Shock's code into the top of my receipt/index.php as suggested. The code output:

Notice: Undefined variable: ROOT_PATH in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/shirts4mike/receipt/index.php on line 9

Warning: include(inc/header.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/shirts4mike/receipt/index.php on line 9

Warning: include(): Failed opening 'inc/header.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.6.2/lib/php') in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/shirts4mike/receipt/index.php on line 9 Thank You!

Thank you for your payment. Your transaction has been completed and a receipt for your purchase has been emailed to you. You may log into your account at www.paypal.com/au to view details of this transaction.

Need another shirt already? Visit the Shirts Listings page

Notice: Use of undefined constant ROOT_PATH - assumed 'ROOT_PATH' in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/shirts4mike/receipt/index.php on line 25

Warning: include(ROOT_PATHinc/footer.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/shirts4mike/receipt/index.php on line 25

Warning: include(): Failed opening 'ROOT_PATHinc/footer.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.6.2/lib/php') in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/shirts4mike/receipt/index.php on line 25

Alexander Stanuga
Alexander Stanuga
11,999 Points
Alexander Stanuga
Alexander Stanuga
11,999 Points

I am somewhat baffled about the first line of output:

Notice: Undefined variable: ROOT_PATH in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/shirts4mike/receipt/index.php on line 9

as I have included a link to the config.php at the top of the document with:

require_once("../inc/config.php");

3 Answers

Bill Roberts
Bill Roberts
8,337 Points
Bill Roberts
Bill Roberts
8,337 Points

You should have commas where you have periods. define("BASE_URL" , "/"); define("ROOT_PATH", $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/");. Leave the one after $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"], though, since you are concatenating that with /.

Alexander Stanuga
Alexander Stanuga
11,999 Points
Alexander Stanuga
Alexander Stanuga
11,999 Points

Thanks so much for pointing that out for me Thomas! I made the change, but unfortunately my problem persists

Alexander Stanuga
Alexander Stanuga
11,999 Points
Alexander Stanuga
Alexander Stanuga
11,999 Points

Ok, both shirts4mike/contact and shirts4mike/receipt are now displaying correctly.

For some reason I think I've narrowed it down to my homepage or index.php, shirts.php & shirt.php. I'll throw up my homepage index.php code.

<?php 

require_once("../inc/config.php"); ?>

<?php   
$pageTitle = "Unique T-shirts designed by a Frog";
include(ROOT_PATH . 'inc/header.php'); ?>

        <div class="section banner">

            <div class="wrapper">

                <img class="hero" src="img/mike-the-frog.png" alt="Mike the Frog says:">
                <div class="button">
                    <a href="<?php echo BASE_URL; ?>shirts.php">
                        <h2>Hey, I&rsquo;m Mike!</h2>
                        <p>Check Out My Shirts</p>
                    </a>
                </div>
            </div>

        </div>

        <div class="section shirts latest">

            <div class="wrapper">

                <h2>Mike&rsquo;s Latest Shirts</h2>

                <?php include(ROOT_PATH . 'inc/products.php'); ?>
                <ul class="products">
                    <?php 

                        $total_products = count($products);
                        $position = 0;
                        $list_view_html = ""; 
                        foreach($products as $product_id => $product) {
                            $position = $position + 1;
                            if ($total_products - $position < 4) {
                                $list_view_html = get_list_view_html($product_id, $product) . $list_view_html;
                            }
                    } 
                    echo $list_view_html;
                    ?>                              
                </ul>

            </div>

        </div>

<?php include(ROOT_PATH . 'inc/footer.php'); ?>

Can anyone see if I'm doing anything wrong?

Julian Pavett
Julian Pavett
12,724 Points
Julian Pavett
Julian Pavett
12,724 Points

Hi, I think that your root may be wrong here: require_once("../inc/config.php") You don't need to go up a folder to access you 'inc' directory. Should be: require_once("inc/config.php");