Uploading Files with PHP

Anon

I am trying to upload a file using PHP on an Apache/Unix server.

I have set up a form that passes the variable info correctly until I specify ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data". As soon as I do this the form will load the page specified in the action comand but no variables have been set.

Why?

At first I thought it might be because the upload_tmp_dir was not specified correctly so I fixed that and made sure that I had write permissions for the directory.

What am I missing? Are there other configuration settings in PHP that must be set first to enable file uploads?

Chris Young

Anon

There is a limit on how big uploaded files can be, also php deletes any left-over cruft at the end of a script, so you'll need to do something with the uploaded file before you end the form processing.

Anon

Thanks for the reply.

I am still having trouble and have started over by trying to run the simple example I found:

<body>
<script language="PHP">
if (isset($uploadedfile))
{
unlink($uploadedfile);
print("Local File: $uploadedfile <br>\n");
print("Name: $uploadedfile_name <br>\n");
print("Size: $uploadedfile_size <br>\n");
print("Type: $uploadedfile_type <br>\n");
print("<hr>\n");
}

</script>

Even this doesn't work. No variables are passed with the form but the form will re-load on submit.

I didn't install PHP, my ISP did. It has been installed as an Apache module. Is it possbile that binary file uploads has not been supported in their installation? Do you know how I could check?

If I change the script above by removing enctype="multipart/form-data" then I can pass the variable names.

Any help would be appreciated. My ISP is not helping.

Chris Young

Anon

do a phpinfo() and see if the upload_dir variable is set, if not, they may have disabled file uplaod (a common practice for an ISP) they also may have LIMIT clauses in the Apache configuration that disallow multipart form uploading.

Also, your ISP may have disabled automatic importing of form variables, so $uplaodedfile may just be a non exsistant varaible. You can import the variable from the Apache environment array like so:

$uploadedfile = $HTTP_POST_VARS["uplaodedfile]";

Note that in general importing varaible stright from a form submission is a bad thing security wise, unless you are positive you initalize all of your varaibles before you process anything. Getting your data from HTTP[POST | GET]VARS is really the way to go.

Anon

Thanks again.

It turns out the problem was with our proxy server. I still don't understand it completely but if I access the script page without going through the proxy it works fine.

Thanks for the info about initializing the variables.