Importing Joomla CMS to custom PHP script (outside root folder)

Question

I am trying to import Joomla CMS to a custom PHP script by this :

define( '_JEXEC', 1 );
define( 'JPATH_BASE', realpath(dirname(__FILE__).'/' )); 
require_once ( JPATH_BASE .'/includes/defines.php' );
require_once ( JPATH_BASE .'/includes/framework.php' );
$app = JFactory::getApplication('site');

But this only seems to work when the PHP script is placed in the root directory of the Joomla installation. If I move the script to some other directory, it throws the following error:

Warning: require_once(C:\xampp\htdocs\newfolder/includes/defines.php):
failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\xampp\htdocs\newfolder\index.php on line 56

Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required
 'C:\xampp\htdocs\newfolder/includes/defines.php' (include_path='.;C:\xampp\php\PEAR') in C:\xampp\htdocs\newfolder\index.php on line 56

I am testing on Xampp. In my case, Joomla is installed in the root directory "htdocs" (http://localhost) and the PHP script is placed inside a directory called newfolder (http://localhost/newfolder/index.php).

Help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

This is because the JPATH_BASE value needs updating as you've moved the file into a new directory.

So replace this:

define('JPATH_BASE', realpath(dirname(__FILE__).'/')); 

with this:

define('JPATH_BASE', realpath(dirname(__FILE__).'/../'));