PHP include file in webroot from file outside webroot

I have a php file outside my webroot in which I want to include a file that is inside the webroot.

folder outside webroot
- > php file in which I want to include
webroot
- > file to include

So I have to go one directory up, but this doesnt work:

include('../webroot/file-to-include.php');

Include full path doesn't work either:

include('home/xx/xx/domains/mydomain/webroot/file-to-include.php');

How can I accomplish this?

Full path should be:

include('/home/xx/xx/domains/mydomain/webroot/file-to-include.php');

Or you should set the path like:

include(__DIR__ . '/../webroot/file-to-include.php');  // php version >= 5.3
include(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../webroot/file-to-include.php');  // php version < 5.3

Have this in a common file, shared by all your php sources outside the webroot:

<?php

  define('PATH_TO_WEBROOT', '/home/xx/xx/domains/mydomain/webroot');

And then use the following to include files.

<?php
  include (PATH_TO_WEBROOT.'/file-to-include.php');

If the location of your webroot changes, you will only have to change that once in your code base.

You can configure php to automatically prepend a given file to all your scripts, by setting the auto_prepend_file directive. That file could for instance contain the PATH_TO_WEBROOT constant, or require_once the file which contains it. This setting can be done on a per domain or per host basis (see the ini sections documentation).

Also, consider using the autoload feature if you are using classes extensively.