PHP file path error for autoloader

Question

Here is my file structure on my cpanel webserver

root
   > vendor
         > autoload.php
   > public_html
         > folder
               > file2.php
         > script_folder
               > include_file.php
         > file1.php

Inside include_file.php I have

 require_once('../vendor/autoload.php');

file1.php and file2.php both contain the same call to include_file.php

 require_once($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]."/script_folder/include_file.php");

This works fine when I run file1.php but when I run file2.php i receive the following error message.

No such file or directory Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required '../vendor/autoload.php' (include_path='.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php71/root/usr/share/pear') in /lvl1/lvl2/public_html/script_folder/include_file.php

However, if I change require_once('../vendor/autoload.php'); to require_once('../../vendor/autoload.php'); in include_file.php then file2.php works and file1.php does not work. It showes a similar error.

I understand this is a file path issue but, what I don't understand is why. Shouldn't the path in include_file.php always be the same no matter what file is calling it; ie file1.php or file2.php?

The way I see it is the the actual require_once statement is being called from include_file.php but, the behavior I'm seeing makes me think the require_once statement is being ran from file1.php or file2.php resulting in the filepath error.

Can someone please clarify?

---

UPDATE: inside include_file.php I have tried using:

require_once($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . '/vendor/autoload.php');

and

require_once(dirname(__FILE__).'/vendor/autoload.php');

neither of these work since both return public_html as the main working directory. My vendor folder is outside the main working directory.

what is returned is this:

/script_folder/vendor/autoload.php

I understand I can simply include the correct file path at the beginning of file1.php and file2.php but, I was trying to figure out a way to reduce the number of requires I need in each file to only one by pointing them to include_file.php , then letting include_file.php do the rest of the work.

My include_file.php file contains several other require statements to other scripts on my server. Kind of like a mini autoloader. All of the other require statements work fine except the autoload.php one I'm having trouble with here.

The only difference I can see is my other scripts are within my public_html folder and my autoload.php file is located outside of public_html .

Answer 1

Assuming you are using Composer, you only need to require "autoload.php" once in file1.php and the file should contain a namespace like namespace App; at the top of the file below the opening PHP tag. Subsequently, file2.php should contain namespace App\\folder; and included_file.php should contain namespace App\\script_folder; .

The namespace should also be defined in composer.json like so:

"autoload": {
    "psr-4": {
        "App\\": "public_html/"
    }
}

Answer 2

Instead of using relative paths use '$_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]'. Like this:

require_once($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . '/vendor/autoload.php');

Answer 3

This seems to work perfectly. Guess instead of a relative path I need to use the absolute path.

include_file.php:

$autoload = str_replace('public_html','vendor/autoload.php',$_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]);
include($autoload);

it allows me to call:

require_once($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]."/script_folder/include_file.php");

from any files that are in my public_html folder.

---

in include_file.php $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] returns /lvl1/lvl2/public_html (the full server path to the publicly visible folder)

then I replace public_html with the the path to my autoloader vendor/autoload.php