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Ruslan Bilohash
Ruslan Bilohash

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Building a Multilingual PHP E-Commerce Script That Auto-Detects Its Own Install Path

#php #mysql #webdev #opensource

Most PHP shop scripts I've seen make one annoying assumption: they expect to live in exactly one folder, on exactly one domain, forever. Move them, and you're editing config constants by hand.

I wanted Shop CMS to just work — root domain or subfolder, no manual path config — so I spent time on the boring-but-critical plumbing before touching any storefront features.

The base-path problem

Most PHP scripts hardcode something like:

define('SH_BASE_PATH', '/shop');
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That's fine until you install to a different folder, or straight to a domain root, and every asset/link breaks.

The fix is to detect it from the request itself:

function sh_resolve_base_path(): string
{
    $script = str_replace('\\', '/', (string) ($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'] ?? '/index.php'));
    $dir = rtrim(dirname($script), '/');

    // Strip known subfolders so admin/api requests resolve back to the site root
    foreach (['/admin/api', '/admin', '/api'] as $suffix) {
        if ($suffix !== '' && str_ends_with($dir, $suffix)) {
            $dir = substr($dir, 0, -strlen($suffix));
            break;
        }
    }

    return ($dir === '' || $dir === '.') ? '' : $dir;
}
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Every internal URL builder (sh_url(), asset paths, .htaccess rewrite rules) then goes through this instead of a hardcoded constant. Install to public_html/ or public_html/shop/ — same zip, zero edits.

Keeping the .htaccess portable too

The Apache side needed the same treatment. Dropping an explicit RewriteBase /shop/ breaks a root install; omitting it lets mod_rewrite infer the base from wherever the file actually sits:

DirectoryIndex index.php
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^product/([a-z][a-z0-9_-]*)/?$ product.php?id=$1 [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule ^$ index.php [L]
RewriteRule ^sitemap\.xml$ sitemap-index.php [L]
RewriteRule . 404.php [L]
</IfModule>
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No absolute paths anywhere in the ruleset.

What else is in there

Beyond the install flexibility, the script ended up with:

  • 6-language storefront (Norwegian default, English, Ukrainian, Russian, Swedish, Lithuanian) with a modular lang/*.php system
  • MySQL storage with a web installer that seeds demo products/categories so you're not staring at an empty catalog
  • Optional AI content tools — bring your own Grok/OpenAI key for product copy, SEO meta and translations; works with local fallback templates if you don't
  • Stripe / PayPal / Vipps / COD checkout, Schema.org markup, XML sitemap, GDPR cookie consent

It's PHP 8+, no framework — just organized enough to actually maintain.

Try it / grab it

Live preview: https://bilohash.com/shop/
Full source (one-time purchase, no trial, no subscription): https://bilohash.gumroad.com/l/shop_cms

Happy to answer questions about the base-path detection approach or anything else in the comments.

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