I tested this:

This is in a new stub file (called myblogtest1.php) located as follows:

samredman.com/blogother/myblogtest1.php

NOTE: I am removing it each time after a test... because the error is revealing my site username (which might be bad for security).

* That's it, now let b2evolution do the rest! :)
*/
echo dirname(__FILE__) http://samredman.com/testdemo/conf/_config.php

require $inc_path.'_blog_main.inc.php';
?>

I got this error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING, expecting ',' or ';' in /home/siteusername/public_html/blogother/myblogtest1.php on line 58

I understand your security issue.

In the error, where does the URL http://samredman.com/testblog/conf/_config.php come from? Please try this:

echo dirname(__FILE__);

(this time, don't forget the trailing ; :p .
To get the debug text error free, comment out the line:

require $inc_path.'_blog_main.inc.php';

Good luck

Test 2.

Next I did this...

/**
* That's it, now let b2evolution do the rest! :)
*/
echo dirname(__FILE__) 'http://samredman.com/testdemo/conf/_config.php';

require $inc_path.'_blog_main.inc.php';
?>

I got this error message:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING, expecting ',' or ';' in /home/samredma/public_html/blogother/myblogtest2.php on line 58

Afwas... could you give me the example code you are talking about.. .like here:

* That's it, now let b2evolution do the rest! :)
*/
what goes here...?

what goes here...?
?>

Just to remind you this is the path to my blog:

http://samredman.com/testdemo/myblog.php (that's the stub file in the blog root).

Path to my conf directory:

http://samredman/testdmo/conf

This is the path to my "other" directory:

http://samredman.com/blogother (that's where I am putting the test stub files)

/**
* That's it, now let b2evolution do the rest! :)
*/
echo dirname(__FILE__);
?>

Next, test 3:

Following is the code (at the bottom of the remote stubfile, located at:

samredman.com/blogother,

remote stub is attempting to access a blog located at

samredman.com/testdemo

my conf directory is at

Path to my conf directory:

http://samredman/testdemo/conf

* That's it, now let b2evolution do the rest! :)
*/
echo dirname(__FILE__);
?>

This is the error message:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '*' in /home/myusername/public_html/blogother/myblogtest4.php on line 56

It should start with the /**, see the first line in my code.

Test 4

Ok... I did this:

/**
* That's it, now let b2evolution do the rest! :)
*/
echo dirname(__FILE__);
?>

http://samredman.com/blogother/myblogtest4.php

it shows this (no error just this):

/home/siteusername/public_html/blogother

Note:

That remote stub in samredman/blogother is attempting to access a blog located at: samredman.com/testdemo

OK, this makes sense; it is not going to find ../blogs/conf/_config.php from dirname(__FILE__). Try it the direct way:

/**
* That's it, now let b2evolution do the rest! :)
*/ 
require_once ('http://www.samredman.com/testblog/conf/_config.php');

require $inc_path.'_blog_main.inc.php'; 
?>

unless the file _config.php is in the directory h^tp://www.samredman.com/testblog/blogs/conf/_config.php, then you hade to give that URL.

Good luck

New test (5).
Using this code (at the end of the stub file in samredman/blogother)::

/**
* That's it, now let b2evolution do the rest! :)
*/
require_once ('http://www.samredman.com/testdemo/conf/_config.php');

require $inc_path.'_blog_main.inc.php';
?>

I get this error message:

Warning: main(_blog_main.inc.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/siteusername/public_html/blogother/myblogtest5.php on line 60

Fatal error: main() [function.require]: Failed opening required '_blog_main.inc.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/testdemo/public_html/blogother/myblogtest5.php on line 60

Note: That remote stub in samredman/blogother is attempting to access a files located at: samredman.com/testdemo/conf (yes... that's exactly where they are).

This on the other hand doesn't make sense; it should work.
Can you provide me with a working link to the index.php that I can click, so I can get into your testblog? At the moment I get 404s to all URLs where I expect to find it.

Good luck

Afwas, I am so sorry, I had given you the wrong link to the blog:

it should have been

http://samredman.com/testdemo/index.php

HOWEVER, I just now redid all the tests (and then I updated the results in all the posts)... not much different errors.. but some slightly.

Using the stub file:
http://samredman.com/testdemo/myblog.php

This is what the last lines of the stub file should look like:

/**
* That's it, now let b2evolution do the rest! :)
*/ 
require_once ('http://samredman.com/testdemo/conf/_config.php');

require $inc_path.'_blog_main.inc.php'; 
?>

There's a good chance this works.

Good luck

Test 6:

last lines of the stub file (located in samredman.com/blogother):

/**
* That's it, now let b2evolution do the rest! :)
*/
require_once ('http://samredman.com/testdemo/conf/_config.php');

require $inc_path.'_blog_main.inc.php';
?>

Error message:

Warning: main(_blog_main.inc.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/siteusername/public_html/blogother/myblogtest6.php on line 60

Fatal error: main() [function.require]: Failed opening required '_blog_main.inc.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/siteusername/public_html/blogother/myblogtest6.php on line 60

If you weren't cheering already, i advice you to do so. It actually found ../conf/_config.php. Now it's complaining about the other file. Let's try the same trick:

/**
* That's it, now let b2evolution do the rest! :)
*/ 
require_once ('http://samredman.com/testdemo/conf/_config.php');

require ('http://samredman.com/testdemo/inc/_blog_main.inc.php'); 
?> 

but this time I am not completely sure it does what I want, because it still needs to set the $inc_path variable for other purposes. But try it anyway.

Good luck

Test 7

Well... that's progress:

Using this code at the end of the remotely placed stub file:

/**
* That's it, now let b2evolution do the rest! :)
*/
require_once ('http://samredman.com/testdemo/conf/_config.php');

require ('http://samredman.com/testdemo/inc/_blog_main.inc.php');
?>

It says:

Please, do not access this page directly.

Take a look yourself:

http://samredman.com/blogother/myblogtest7.php

*edit*

Deleted this post, it was a mistake and will only confuse future readers.

Test 8... Same results as test 7

Placed this code at the end of the remotely placed stubfile:

/**
* That's it, now let b2evolution do the rest! :)
*/
require_once ('http://samredman.com/testdemo/conf/_config.php');

require ('http://samredman.com/testdemo/inc/_main.inc.php');
?>

It says this (just like test 7):

Please, do not access this page directly.

You can view it here:

http://samredman.com/blogother/myblogtest8.php

It's half / half what I expected, but certainly not which I hoped for. Unfortunately it doesn't say what file threw the notice (all files in the distribution can give this message).

I present to you the one and only working guide to the definitive solution to your problem.

1) Restore the stub file to it's original default:

/**
* That's it, now let b2evolution do the rest! :)
*/ 
require_once (dirname(__FILE__).'/conf/_config.php');

require $inc_path.'_blog_main.inc.php'; 
?>

place this file in h*tp://samredman.com/testdemo/ and delete it from h*tp://samredman.com/otherLocation

2) create a file called new_stub.php or whatever you want, with this in it:

<?php
require_once ('http://samredman.com/testdemo/myblog.php');
?>

and place this file anywhere on the internet.

Don't get confused by the names I just invented.

Good luck

Afwas, yes that is interesting... but, it is not a remote stub file. However, that "require_once" code of yours does, very excellently, provide a useful cloaking redirect, which will serve a lot of people's needs. The problem with cloaking (as your example does) is that, certainly it does display the remote blog with the address initially as the location where the redirect originated, but if the user does any navigation (like to another page) then that url in the browser is lost. So, you might as well have just done a simple redirect rather than cloak it (unless someone is satisfied with that initial page effect).

I can do redirects lots of ways.

1. HTML (meta header expiration, also called "meta refresh")
2. HTML (frames, also known as URL cloaking)
3. PHP (Header function)
4. Perl (Header function)
5. ASP (Header function (I guess so, I don't use ASP))
6. mod_rewrite (to redirect URLs based on a .htaccess file)

- and I just learned this:

7. PHP - The Afwas cloaking redirect method - using "require_once ":

See it here: http://samredman.com/blogother/test9.php (it cloaks, temporarily keeping the original url when showing the remote blog).

And here is Afwas' code:

<?php 
require_once ('http://samredman.com/testdemo/myblog.php'); 
?> 

I have used the following kind of header php approach in the past for other purposes (this isn't a cloak, but a pure redirect):

See it here: http://samredman.com/blogother/test10.php (doesn't cloak, just re-directs to a new url).

And here is my code:

<?php
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: http://samredman.com/testdemo/myblog.php");
exit();

?> 

I was hoping for something that would meet this definition from the manual:

Now if you want more flexibility, what you do is create a stub file.

A stub file is a .php file onto which the webserver can hit, at any URL you may fancy. That stub file will in turn call b2evo to do the displaying job for a particular blog, and using a particular skin, based on the parameters you set inside of the stub file.

If you want your blog to be accessed at http://www.server.com/this/is/a/fancy/path/my_blog.php, then you just put a stub file called my_blog.php in the /this/is/a/fancy/path folder.

That description seems to say you can use a stub file which will be located at a distant location which will allow you to specify the skin in that remote location. But, I am beginning to think that whoever wrote that manual description didn't know what they were talking about (unless someone can show how to do it).

Really, who needs a remote stub file anyway? My simple php header redirect is just fine for most situations.. The Afwas cloaking redirect is great for other situations, where you want to keep the original url in the browser address window (at least initially, until any navigation link is clicked).

Hey sam, what happens if you create /blogother/test.php and have :

<?php
require_once dirname(__FILE__).'/../testdemo/conf/_config.php';
echo preg_replace( '~^.+?public_html~', '', $inc_path.'_blog_main.inc.php' );
?>

¥

Test 12 -

Using this code from ¥åßßå (as a standalone php file):

<?php 
require_once dirname(__FILE__).'/../testdemo/conf/_config.php'; 
echo preg_replace( '~^.+?public_html~', '', $inc_path.'_blog_main.inc.php' ); 
?> 

Produced this, "printed" on the screen:

/testdemo/inc/_blog_main.inc.php

You can see it for yourself here:

http://samredman.com/blogother/myblogtest12.php

Hi samredman,

You can have multiple stubfiles, as long as they are in a (sub)directory from the blog. You could make several subdires in h*tp://www.samredman.com/testdemo/. In each subdir you place the same stubfile. Then you can start tweaking, making each stubfile different to your needs. From the different location, you can call the stubfile you want.
But perhaps we find a solution to your problem and then you can have a stubfile in any directory you want. The problem being your stubfile in another branch of the server tree.

I agree the text in the manual is wrong. The [url=http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=1230]original post by François[/url] is clearer. Many of the docs are still from 1.6.8 or even prehistoric 0.9.2.

What ¥åßßå asked you to do sounds promising. Still it's a clumsy way to call a blog (in each other location you need to edit the stub file to change the relative location).

I am wondering, does this work (in the stub file). Something similar works in all my testblogs:

/**
* That's it, now let b2evolution do the rest! :)
*/
require_once dirname(__FILE__).'/../testdemo/conf/_config.php';

require $inc_path.'_blog_main.inc.php';
?>

Good luck

Test 13

Afwas... that worked!

13 was the lucky number

I am amazed. Honestly, I tried that one myself (at least I thought I did)... as I mentioned in my first post on this. I must have not had it exactly as you stated it. Not only does it work... it continues to keep that address in the browser address window as I navigate. Well.. I am just floored.
:
You can see it working here

http://samredman.com/blogother/myblogtest13.php

Plus, it functions as a true stub file... I can use it to specify a unique skin:

You can see the a specific skin working here:

http://samredman.com/blogother/myblogtest14.php

All I can say is: well done, Afwas!

Now can you figure out a way to make it work outside of the same domain? Hey.. might as well ask for the impossible.

Hi samredman,

I am very glad you got things workig the way you wanted it. For your last question: It doesn't seem to work to call the _config.php directly. Therefore it will not be possible to put the stub file on another domain, but you might get away with it if it's on the same server. You still have the possibility to have multiple stub files that you can call from other places.

Good luck