diff --git a/base.php b/base.php
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..82727f90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/base.php
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+<?php
+/*
+ * 
+ * File: base.php
+ * Description: Keeps track of absolute path to files, to ease development
+ *
+ */
+
+define('ZOFF_BASE_PATH', dirname(__FILE__));
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/index.php b/index.php
index 0df2633e..6d5ebad3 100755
--- a/index.php
+++ b/index.php
@@ -55,7 +55,8 @@
  */
 
 // Require the autoloader
-require 'vendor/autoload.php';
+require 'base.php';
+require ZOFF_BASE_PATH . '/vendor/autoload.php';
 
 // New instance of smarty
 $template = new Smarty();
@@ -68,13 +69,13 @@ $template->right_delimiter = ']]';
 if (!isset($_GET['q'])) {
     // Not in a room, fetch active rooms
     
-    $dir = scandir('./lists');
+    $dir = scandir(ZOFF_BASE_PATH . '/lists');
     $channels = [];
     $time = 60 * 60 * 24 * 3;
     
     foreach ($dir as $files) {
         if (strpos($files, '.json') !== false) {
-            if (time() - filemtime('./lists/' . $files) < $time) {
+            if (time() - filemtime(ZOFF_BASE_PATH . '/lists/' . $files) < $time) {
                 $channels[] = ucfirst(str_replace('.json', '', $files));
             }
         }