How to call a CSS file from the right place

I'm starting a project in 开发者_运维百科PHP, and I want to structure my files properly from the start (unlike my last project, which had almost every file in a single directory). The problem is the following, which I will describe with an example:

Take the following files: index.php, includes/header.php, and css/common.css. index.php 'includes' the header (as will many other php files). The header then calls common.css so that its html elements can be placed properly. common.css will also provide styling for general elements in index.php and other files.

Notice that since the header is being included, when the header calls common.css, it does so from the location of the file calling it; in this case, index.php. But if I add, say, modules/friends.php and call the header with it, it will be looking for the CSS file in the wrong spot!

Initially I tried to remedy this by using the actual path for when I call CSS files. However, my local machine and web server have a different layout of directories, and therefore I cannot simply call /var/www/whatever.

Can anyone help me or redirect me to a place where this sort of thing is documented?

Thanks,

Paragon

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Always specify absolute paths to all your resources: .css, .js, images, etc...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_path

However, my local machine and web server have a different layout of directories, and therefore I cannot simply call /var/www/whatever.

You can. Web paths is not the same thing as local filesystem paths. When you specify path in web - the root sign / specifies to the webroot (the directory your project is placed at), not your filesystem root.

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Congratulations on recognizing a huge problem.

Yes, this is always the big, important question that you need to answer at the start.

I've finally learned -- and this is after quite a few years -- to try my best to make the file structure on the development machine (my PC, say) be exactly like the file structure on the host machine (a Linux host, for example). That one thing alone has saved me unending hours of grief.

If you can accomplish that, then the rest is a piece of cake, believe me. You can put files in whatever directories you want, wherever it makes sense to you, on both machines. You can figure out what files should go where.

If you don't bother to try for near-identical file-directory setups on both machines, you are forever going to be wondering, as you edit away, "Hey, what machine am I on? If I'm on the host, then very-important-file.php is in /toplevel, and everything else is under it. But if I'm on the PC, then very-important-file.php is over here in /my-files, see, and then other files are on different levels and did I delete that file and ..." My God, don't make me think, much less think about that mindless crap.

You can handle and remember just the root being in different spots on different machines, but other than that, forget it.

Now when you come to run your stuff, you will always know where the pieces of that stuff are: CSS files, JS files, whatever. PLUS you can (maybe; if you're lucky) debug your code on the PC or the host equally well, with no differences and with no changes anywhere. PLUS when you upload your new code, you can FTP it up to the host in one big chunk rooted where you like. (Which has the very nice ancillary benefit of your being able to move files around wherever you want on the development machine.)

Piece of cake! Don't pass up this chance to save yourself days or weeks (literally) of time.

Always IMHO.