template path and php includes - Joomla! Forum - community, help and support

i'm little stuck. firstly i'll let community know i'm old hand coder. i've had success building our website on local host using joomla. have basic setup way want it, i've switched editors. use codemirror editor. i'm using protostar template , have added few hundred lines template.css file results. our website has couple dozen pages use 5 different tables. instead of cutting , pasting these tables each article want write tables php script , include them each article this:

code: select all

<?php
include '/joomla/templates/protostar/css/hello.php';
print 'why on earth...?';
?>


hello.php 1 line test print 'hello world'. set project allows , executes php , javascript , works well. however, refuses execute php's include statement, 'why on earth...?'

what missing?

what web server error log say? if add "or die" include line?

could problem absolute pathname?