[firepages]

sorry, but like Spooks I can see no reason why that code would not work under any circumstances unless there was a problem with the include path in the php.ini, in saying that I see you tried the absolute path which should work in anycase.

I used include './sample_array.txt';
but all of your methods should have worked with the possible exception of $DOCUMENT_ROOT which may give a misleading value in a script aliased directory (and is best now accessed via $_SERVER[DOCUMENT_ROOT]

try running this to see if your include path has anything strange in it

echo ini_get('include_path');