Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Programming Discussion : How to set the file paths for images, js, css files in a typical MVC Framework?

[grabmail]

Eg.

Assuming, your images folder is at web root. i.e. http://localhost/images

URl is http://localhost/index.php/blog/comments

Even though you are at index.php,

images/image.jpg will not work since the / in the url trick the path info.

So how do i solve this problem?

by the way, what's the mod_rewrite rules to get rid of index.php

i want http://localhost/blog/comments

[JustinH]

I use several path constants and will the full url/path to whatever directory I use. I set it up in the config directory, and set all the paths you will be using throughout the script, ie:

PHP Code:

define ('DS', DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR);
define ('ROOT_PATH', dirname(__FILE__) . DS);
define ('BASE_URL', URL . $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']);
define('CONTROLLERS', ROOT_PATH . 'controllers' . DS);
define('MODELS', ROOT_PATH . 'models' . DS);
define('VIEWS', ROOT_PATH . 'views' . DS);
define('IMAGES', ROOT_PATH . 'images' . DS); 


(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR is a pre-defined constant in PHP). Not only does this make it easier for you to code with, it makes it a quick change if you move directories.

[grabmail]

what's the URL in define ('BASE_URL', URL . $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']);

[Dan L]

URL would be

define('URL','http://localhost/');

or you could swap it with the value of URL

doesn't matter.

[grabmail]

what's BASE_URL for?

[Dan L]

It's called an example.

Try using common sense!

[grabmail]

no! i mean. why did justin set a constant BASE_URL for?

What use is it in an MVC environ?

[JustinH]

I forgot to add URL in there. I have the end user define the URL itself, and then I set it as a constant URL... the BASE_URL is for the script itself (although, my naming convention really isn't proper). The purpose behind this is modularity... if I ever add a module that requires a separate file, I already have the URL directive set.

It's not entirely needed, but useful if you ever expand the program.

[deuce868]

I do the same thing. I have constants for the Library folder, Images, External, and a base url that is prepended to all the others. That way you can move the site from the web root to an /apps/ folder and the base url get updated and auto updates the rest.

Then I can just
require(LIBRARY . 'PEAR/SMTP.php');

or

<img src="<?php print IMAGE_PATH; ?>logo.gif">

and nothing breaks.