MSM, Error 500 and Custom Config

Question

I'm currently running my custom bootstrap config, and I had a previous problem where MSM wouldn't work with it (Both in the Control Panel and the front end)

I managed to fix this problem, but now I get an "Error 500" on the front end, whenever I enter one of the sites other than the main one.

What could be causing this.

I have possibly nailed it down to being:

<?php require('./config.php'); ?>

In my "system/expressionengine/config/config.php" requesting my custom config file in the root directory. Could this be causing problems?

My custom config file can be found here:

https://github.com/madebymayo/ExpressionEngine-Environment-Config

EDIT: I must point out, that before placing my custom config in, the original config file worked perfectly for EE and MSM. But it doesn't really work with my workflow :)

PARTIALLY SOLVED...Still need help

My current setup is to have my custom "config.php" bootstrap in the root of my site.

I then Have the require('./config.php') in both the database.php and config.php files within "/system/expressionengine/config/"

My URL's look like this:

http://website.com

http://website.com/website_1

http://website.com/website_2

Now I think the problem is the

<?php require('./config.php'); ?>

I changed it to (Added dot):

<?php require('../config.php'); ?>

and both my website_1 and website_2 work. But it breaks my Control Panel and the Root URL.

Is there an If statement I could put in my config file, to say IF we're inside either website_1 or website_2 display:

<?php require('../config.php'); ?>

But if we're inside the root or in the CP, use:

<?php require('./config.php'); ?>

Answer 1

Try this:

require(dirname(__FILE__).'/path/from/current/file/to/config.php');

For example, assuming you have config.php in the standard system/expressionengine/config directory, you would use this line:

require(dirname(__FILE__).'/../../../config.php');

Answer 2

A useful trick I use in circumstances like this is to define an environment variable in an .htaccess file. These environment variables can then be accessed via PHP

So in website_1/ and website_2/, put the following line at the top of your .htaccess file:

SetEnv CONFIG_PATH_RELATIVE "../"

And then in the root site (where your control panel is), put the following line:

SetEnv CONFIG_PATH_RELATIVE "./"

Now, inside your main config.php file, at the top, do the following:

defined('CONFIG_PATH_RELATIVE') 
    || define('CONFIG_PATH_RELATIVE', (getenv('CONFIG_PATH_RELATIVE') ? getenv('CONFIG_PATH_RELATIVE') : FCPATH));

The above code says, "check for a constant named CONFIG_PATH_RELATIVE. If you find it, use it. If not, define that constant as the contents of the environment variable CONFIG_PATH_RELATIVE, and if you don't find an environment variable with that name, then use the EE built-in constant FCPATH."

Last, wherever you're requiring your custom config, change the statement to the following:

<?php require_once(CONFIG_PATH_RELATIVE.'config.php'); ?>

(Note that I've changed your require to a require_once. This is almost always better practice.)

The only real caveat is that some web hosts (usually the cheap ones) will not let you set environment vars in .htaccess. If you have one of those hosts, this technique will not work for you.