Links to files relative to the site root

[Emc2]

I want to setup a javascript menu, and have links to numerous files within folders. Every page is setup in Dreamweaver from a Template. Whenever I change the Template in Dreamweaver, it updates every page that's attached to it.

The template contains the necessary info for the menus. However, let's say I go, from the site root, into a folder, like
(site root)/(folder):
courts/counties

Every page is still linked to the template
courts/Templates/base.dwt

the templates are designed in Dreamweaver to go to links relative to the current document. Say you're on the page courts/counties/dade.html, and need to go to Chandler county's webpage (same folder), then the link would be "chandler.htm".

Let's say you wanted to go back up a folder, to the index page...the link would be "../index.html"

How could I instead get the link to point to the root of the site and then go from there, instead of having to "go up" a level? This will great alleviate the problems I'm having, which are rather complex to describe.

I know that "./file.html" is the current folder "../file.html" is one folder up...

[strangerstill]

/courts/index.html

A / at the beginning of a link references the base URI of a page.

By default the base URI is the 'network location' e.g. www.somesite.com; however by using a BASE tag in the HEAD section the author can specify another base URI.

http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/links.html#h-12.4
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1808.txt

[Emc2]

So essentially, just put BASE = (site root) at the top, then make any link in any folder on any page point relative to that?

[Emc2]

Is there a way I can get away without putting in "www.whatever.com" and just get to the root folder of the server?

[strangerstill]

Yeah, that's what a link starting "/" does - on the page www.whatever.com/parth/to/page.html the link /another/page.html evaulates (in the browser) to www.whatever.com/another/page.html

The BASE tag is a bit of a non sequitur, most of the time you won't need it (it's useful for cached pages - the Google cache uses the BASE tag so that links in a cached page point to the actual site not to the Google site)

[Emc2]

It's turning out that, without the BASE tag:

say I'm on the page "root/folder/page.html"

A link to "/page2.html" links to "root/folder/page2.html" and not "root/page2.html"

Is this how it's supposed to work?

[Little-Burrito]

I've searched around and haven't found any way to locate the root folder (because I can't use the <base>-tag because of the structure of the site), so I got tired of searching and made a small php function instead. Actually I made 2 because I had to use another handy thing in it.

PHP Code:

 // Since I like creating my own functions, here's an equivalent of preg_match:
function numCharMatches($pattern, $string)
{
    $count = 0;

    for ($i = 0; $i < strlen($string); $i++)
        if (eregi($pattern, substr($string, $i, 1)))
            $count++;

    return $count;
}

 // And here's the actual function
function locateRoot()
{
    $matches = numCharMatches("/", $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']); // Can be replaced with preg_match. Just not as hardcore.
    $dir = "";

    for ($i = 1; $i < $matches; $i++)
        $dir .= "../";

    return $dir;
} 


Edit:

Oh, so the way to use this would be:

PHP Code:

<a href="<? echo locateRoot(); ?>courts/counties">courts/counties</a>

[Little-Burrito]

I just realized this thread is six years old. That's what happens when you google.