How do i stop a file like include.php that i have included on every page being viewed directly (www.mysite.com/include.php)?

I have seen a tutorial before but i cannot find it now.
At the moment i am using:

PHP Code:

if ($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] == "/include.php")
{
die;
} 


But this can sometimes cause problems.

unless you have a link to it no one will ever know it exists or where it is in your site.
Includes are processed by the server and the url is never shown to the outside world.

in the include.php script put this inside of the php tags before any of your other code

PHP Code:

 if (!defined('InMainScript')){ exit; } 


then in the scripts that you need to include the file put the below code just above your include statement

PHP Code:

  define("InMainScript", True); 


.php files are sent to the interpreter when they are requested in a browser, they will never be rendered to a browser under any circumstance I am aware of.

I just tried accessing a library include file in my server and it returned a blank page, not even any page source code to view. Another include file with a menu returned just the rendered html code, a bare list of links.

If anyone can view your php code directly, something is very wrong with your server, but I wouldn't worry about it. Try accessing your files directly yourself just to be sure.

Cheers,

Rob