Accessing variables from another file

[Ugluth]

Hello there, i have a template of my own, and what i want to do is have another file where i can get the some variables. My secondary file is in template/lib/php/setup.php

So to include it, in my index.php i have the following line:

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include_once('/public_html/templates/vfxhost/lib/php/setup.php');

Inside the setup.php though i have declared some variables which seems like i'm not able to call from index.php. In setup as in index i start with:

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defined('_JEXEC') or die('Restricted access');

and after that i have something like:

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$template_width = $this->params->get('page_width');

But if i write:

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<?php echo $template_width; ?>

in my index.php i don't see the value of the variable as it should appear.

I'm using joomla 1.5.20 if you need any other information please let me know.
Thanks in advance!

[Alex Dobrin]

Try defining the variables with some initial values in index.php, call the other file after that.
Didn't test this.

[Ugluth]

Well the whole point for me doing this is getting my index.php a bit shorter cause at the moment its really a mess to make some changes, the variables are supposed to get the value the administrator has given in the template management page.

I'm not really sure, but i think the problem is that the setup.php isn't included any at all? I can't imagine something else going wrong, but i don't see anything wrong with my include statement either. If i do what you say it does work, but its not really what i'm looking for, thank you for your time though

[Alex Dobrin]

Your problem is generated by the variables scope ( http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.v ... .scope.php ).
Starting from that you might be able to find a solution that fits your needs.

[Ugluth]

All of the variables i define are of global scope, i don't define them as global but they're not in any function either, so they should be seen. I took the concept from another template, i have it pretty much identical to the way they do it in that template. He doesn't seem to use anything special to call the variables. He just references them and it works.

What troubles me is that if i use:

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include_once(JPATH_ROOT . '/templates/vfxhost/lib/php/setup.php');

instead of:

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include_once('/public_html/templates/vfxhost/lib/php/setup.php');

my page doesn't load any at all.

Hope that might give you some more info about my problem. Again thank you for your time

Edit: Forgot to ask, would you happen to know a way to check what files are loaded? looked for some addon but there's only for css files not for php ones.

[Alex Dobrin]

All of the variables i define are of global scope, i don't define them as global but they're not in any function either, so they should be seen. I took the concept from another template, i have it pretty much identical to the way they do it in that template. He doesn't seem to use anything special to call the variables. He just references them and it works.

Is that template working on the same server that your template is not ?
I suspect it has the global variables on and that is not a recommended setting.

What troubles me is that if i use:

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include_once(JPATH_ROOT . '/templates/vfxhost/lib/php/setup.php');

instead of:

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include_once('/public_html/templates/vfxhost/lib/php/setup.php');

my page doesn't load any at all.

See the exact path generated by JPATH_ROOT ( I bet it is not "/public_html" ).

Edit: Forgot to ask, would you happen to know a way to check what files are loaded? looked for some addon but there's only for css files not for php ones.

I don't think you can check if a php file was loaded ( don't know of any way of doing it ), but you can define a function in that file and check if it was defined or not ( using "function_exists()" http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.f ... exists.php ).

[Ugluth]

First of all you are correct about the full path, the full path is /home/katsanto/public_html.
Now i tried what you said and it doesn't see the function i created. I'll paste the function just to make sure i didn't make a typo or something.

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function test() {
		echo "test";
	}

and then used:

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if (function_exists('test')) {
    echo "test function is available.<br />\n";
} else {
    echo "test function is not available.<br />\n";
}

on my index.php and i got that the function is not available. And i also did a:

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if (file_exists(JPATH_ROOT . '/templates/vfxhost/lib/php/setup.php')) {
    echo "The file exists";
} else {
    echo "The file does not exist";
}

and it says that the file exists. But still as i said earlier too, if i use that path for the include i make my page wont load at all.

Hope that helps you understand something more.

[Alex Dobrin]

function_exists('test') will return true only after you include the setup.php file ( I'm guessing you defined the function test() in it ).
You can check function_exists() and if returns false you include setup.php.

I forgot about another function that might help you.
include_once() - http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.include-once.php

[Ugluth]

Yes you are right, the function is in my setup.php file. But all this time, that is what i'm trying to do really. The problem is that the setup.php isn't actually included. At the moment i'm using

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include_once('/templates/vfxhost/lib/php/setup.php');

which i know is wrong after you pointed me out that this is not the full path.
But if i use

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include_once(JPATH_ROOT . '/templates/vfxhost/lib/php/setup.php');

which is the correct one, my site won't load any at all.

[Ugluth]

That's it i should give up programming, while i was testing a lot of stuff to see if something works, i copied pasted the original file as it was, and the template worked, it even printed a variable from the included file! I really don't know what was wrong with my code (which i had copied and pasted) but when i copied the whole file it just worked...

I really wanna hit my head against the wall really hard at times like these. Thank you very much for your time, i guess my problem is solved, but i don't really know how.

Anyway thank you again for your effort and time

[Alex Dobrin]

Happy to hear you solved your problem.