Properly specifying php include/require paths

Question

Using two different php files with very different paths on a host machine: api.php and api2.php , How can one use an include statement to freely use all the code in api2.php in api.php . The path of the api2.php file that should be included is Desktop > PushChatServer > Api . The path for the api.php file is Desktop > HtDocs > Folder1 Is this how one would correctly specify an include/require path in the api.php file to successfully use the data from api2.php ?

require_once 'Desktop/PushChatServer/api2.php';

Or would the following work though both files have different paths?

require_once 'api2.php';

Source: Files are included based on the file path given or, if none is given, the include_path specified. http://php.net/manual/en/function.include.php

I want o make sure the script reads the right path. Is it possible to use this type of path in a require statement?

Answer 1

To get the exact path of the file you're using open it in Text Wrangler (free for download). Once the file is opened in text wrangler go to where it says copy path and you can then pick a multitude of options ranging from copy the url (text wrangler will generate one for your file) or copy full path (text wrangler will generate the full path). In my case it was this

require 'file://localhost/Users/user/Desktop/PushChatServer/api/api.php';