To Do

Display in PHP

• echo

• print_r

• To display the contents of an array in a friendly manner

echo '<pre>';print_r($myArray);echo '</pre>';

Paths

Type of paths

Retrieve the path

• dirname() : the folder of a file

  
  dirname(string $path, int $levels = 1): string
  
  echo dirname('/var/www/html/index.php');
  // Résultat : /var/www/html
  
  echo dirname('/var/www/html/index.php', 2);
  // Résultat : /var/www

• realpath() : returns the absolute path of a file or directory, resolving relative paths (../, ./)

  echo realpath('config/../includes/init.php'); 
  
  //return
  /var/www/html/project/includes/init.php

• Get the relative path of the project

  define('ROOT_DIR', realpath(__DIR__));
  $relativePath = str_replace($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'], '', ROOT_DIR);
  
  DOCUMENT_ROOT = /home/juliechaat/www
   		 ROOT_DIR = /home/juliechaat/www/tutos/web_dev/practice/exercices
   		 
  // You get the relative path
  tutos/web_dev/practice/exercices

• Add the Domain name to have the exact URL of the project

SEO and paths

• In the internal links with <a> you should put the relative path of the page and not the entire canonical URL.
  • Search engine understand and convert itself to absolut path

Portability

Project portability means the ability of a project to be moved or used in different environments (local server, remote server, new folder, new domain…) without needing to change the code.

If the project is portable, everything works without modification:

• internal links

• CSS, JS, and image paths

• PHP includes (require, include)

• the database connection (if properly configured)

• redirections

What makes a project non-portable: hard-coded absolute paths

Bootstrap.php

A file to give the root instruction of your project.

To automatically define the path to not have to change it when you change the web server of your project

DOCUMENT_ROOT = /home/juliechaat/www
 		 ROOT_DIR = /home/juliechaat/www/tutos/web_dev/practice/exercices
 		 
// You get the relative path
tutos/web_dev/practice/exercices

<?php
// bootstrap.php

// Project root path
// define('ROOT_DIR', realpath(__DIR__));

// Relative path = substract the absolut project path ($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] ) to the path of the file (dirname(__DIR__))
$relativePath = str_replace($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'], '', ROOT_DIR);

// The directory of the project
define('BASE_URL_REL', $relativePath);

// Protocol : http or https ?
$protocol = (!empty($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && $_SERVER['HTTPS'] !== 'off') ? 'https' : 'http';

// the domain name
$host = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];

An Improved Architecture

• Organize all your pages inside a dedicated folder (e.g. page-templates/) to keep your project structure clean.

• Create a router.php file to dynamically serve the correct page from the folder based on the URL.

• Configure an .htaccess file to enable clean, user-friendly, and SEO-friendly URLs (e.g. /exercise_1 instead of /router.php?page=exercise_1).

MCV architecture

MVC stands for Model - View - Controller. It’s a design pattern used to separate different parts of a web application:

• Model → handles the data and business logic (database queries, calculations …).

• View → displays the user interface (HTML templates, CSS).

• Controller → acts as a middleman between the Model and the View (receives user input, fetches data from the model, and sends it to the view, ….).

This structure helps keep code modular, testable, and easier to maintain.

What would be needed for full MVC here?

To turn our current routing system into a real MVC structure, we would need to:

1. Create a controllers/ folder

   Each controller handles requests, calls the model, and returns a view.

2. Create a models/ folder

   Each model represents a type of data (User.php, Product.php, …) and handles database operations.

3. Create a views/ folder

   Each view is a template (PHP, HTML, etc.) responsible only for presentation.

4. Update the router to load the right controller based on the URL.

Practice

funwebdev (project folder)
		├── exercices
				├── assets
				│   ├── css
				│   │   ├── footer.css
				│   │   ├── header.css
				│   │   └── main.css
				│   ├── fonts
				│   │   ├── SourGummy_Expanded-Light.ttf
				│   ├── images
				│   │   ├── 5855174537.jpg
				│   │   └── central-park.jpg
				│   └── js
				│       ├── countries.js
				│       └── exercise_1.js
				├── bootstrap.php
				├── index.php
				├── page-templates
				│   ├── countries.php
				│   ├── exercise_1.php
				│   ├── exercise_2.php
				│   ├── folder_2
				│   │   └── exercise_3.php
				│   └── infophp.php
				├── readme.md
				├── router.php
				├── template-parts
				│   ├── footer.php
				│   ├── head.php
				│   └── header.php
				├── test.php
				└── test2.php

exercices/index.php

<?php
require_once __DIR__ . '/bootstrap.php';
include ROOT_DIR . '/template-parts/head.php';
include ROOT_DIR . '/template-parts/header.php';
?>

<main>
    <h1>Home Page</h1>
</main>

<?php
include_once('template-parts/footer.php');
?>

exercices/.htaccess

RewriteEngine On

# Si le fichier ou dossier existe, ne rien faire
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

# Sinon, rediriger vers router.php
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ router.php?page=$1 [QSA,L]

exercices/router.php

<?php
require_once __DIR__ . '/bootstrap.php';

// This router dynamically loads pages from the "page-templates" folder
// It supports clean URLs using .htaccess rewriting rules

// $_GET contains the parameters passed in the URL, such as ?page=exercise_1
// $_GET['page'] can also include a subfolder, like folder_2/exercise_3
$page = $_GET['page'] ?? 'index';
//echo $_GET['page'];

// path to the page-templates to display
if ($page === "index") {
    $file = __DIR__ . "/" . $page . '.php';
} else {
    $file = __DIR__ . '/page-templates/' . $page . '.php';
}


// if the page-templates exists => display the page, else display error 404
if (file_exists($file)) {
    require_once $file;
} else {
    http_response_code(404);
    echo "<h1>404 - Page not found</h1>";
}

/template-parts/header.php

<header>
    <nav>
        <ul>
            <li><a href="<?php echo BASE_URL_REL ?>/exercise_1"><i class="fa-solid fa-user"></i>Exercise 1</a></li>
            <li><a href="<?php echo BASE_URL_REL ?>/exercise_2">Exercise 2</a></li>
            <li><a href="<?php echo BASE_URL_REL ?>/folder_2/exercise_3">Exercise 3</a></li>
            <li><a href="<?php echo BASE_URL_REL ?>/countries">Countries</a></li>
            <li><a href="#footer_page">Footer</a></li>
            <li><a href="<?php echo BASE_URL_REL ?>/exercise_2#footer_page">Exercise 2 Footer</a></li>
        </ul>
    </nav>
</header>

exercices/bootstrap.php

<?php
// bootstrap.php

// Project root path
define('ROOT_DIR', realpath(__DIR__));

// Protocol : http or https ?
$protocol = (!empty($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && $_SERVER['HTTPS'] !== 'off') ? 'https' : 'http';

// the domain name
$host = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];

// Relative path = substract the absolut project path ($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] ) to the path of the file (dirname(__DIR__))
$relativePath = str_replace($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'], '', ROOT_DIR);

// The directory of the project
define('BASE_URL_REL', $relativePath);