File Inclusion

PHPLucidFrame helps you to include files more easier. You can use _i() for PHP files, _js() for Javascript files and _css() for CSS files. The _i() is returning the system file path and it has to be used with the PHP built-in functions include and require. The _js() and _css() will look for the files in the directory /assets/css/ and /assets/js/ and include them automatically.

All of three functions will operate based on the configuration variable $lc_sites in /inc/config.php. They will look for the files from the most specific directory to the least. For example, if you use include(_i('inc/tpl/head.php')), it will look for the files as follow and it will stop where the file is found.

1. /app/inc/tpl/head.php

2. /inc/tpl/head.php

Another example is that if you have a directory /app/admin/ configured in $lc_sites as follow:

# $lc_sites: consider sub-directories as additional site roots and namespaces
/**
 * ### Syntax
 *  array(
 *   'virtual_folder_name (namespace)'  => 'physical_folder_name_directly_under_app_directory'
 *  )
 *  For example, if you have the configuration `array('admin' => 'admin')` here, you let LucidFrame know to include the files
 * from those directories below without specifying the directory name explicitly in every include:
 *   /app/admin/assets/css
 *   /app/admin/assets/js
 *   /app/admin/inc
 *   /app/admin/helpers
 * you could also set 'lc-admin' => 'admin', then you can access http://localhost/phplucidframe/lc-admin
 * Leave this an empty array if you don't want this feature
 * @see https://github.com/phplucidframe/phplucidframe/wiki/Configuration-for-The-Sample-Administration
-Module
 */
$lc_sites = array(
    'admin' => 'admin',
);

then, PHPLucidFrame will look for the file:

1. /app/admin/inc/tpl/head.php

2. /app/inc/tpl/head.php

3. /inc/tpl/head.php

For js() and _css(), you don’t need to include the directory path as it looks for the files in the /assets/js/ and /assets/css/ folders and prints out <script> and <link /> respectively if they found the files. There are two system provided directories - /assets/js/ and /assets/css/ under the root. Let’s say you also have those two directories in other sub-directories as below:

/path_to_webserver_document_root
   /app
    |-- /admin
    |    |-- /assets
    |    |    |-- /css
    |    |    |-- /js
    |-- /assets
    |    |-- /css
    |    |-- /js
   /assets
    |-- /css
    |-- /js

When you use _js('app.js') and if you are at admin, it will look for the file as the following priority and it will stop where the file is found.

1. /app/admin/assets/js/app.js

2. /app/assets/js/app.js

3. /assets/js/app.js

It is same processing for the usage of _css('base.css'):

1. /app/admin/assets/css/base.css

2. /app/assets/css/base.css

3. /assets/css/base.css