writing files with PHP and MySQL

[Anon]

I'm working on a database for a site, and they want to be able to download a text version of the database.

The information is stored in a MySQL table and I can output it to the screen without a problem. The trouble is writing.creating a text file of the data where the user can download (ftp) it.

Or even directly on the user's machine.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

kris szafranski

[daarius]

simply retrieve the data from your database, and instead echo'ing to the screen in HTML format, just write the data in text format in to a file, using file()

lookup the php manual for file()

http://www.php.net/file()

Daarius...

[Anon]

I wasn't very specific, Daarius. sorry.

The problem is in writing or creating a file in a protected directory. I have the username and pass, but don't know how to pass it to the server.

thank you.

kris

[daarius]

ok i see...

If, the folder is under .htaccess protection of Apache server, then do below:

well you can use the header() to send appropriate headers to the browser.

once again check the manual, php.net?header

e.g.
header('Location: http://blah.com');

above will actually send the user to above URL, as the header is sent to the browser. Similarly, there is paramter to send auth headers to the browser, using:
header('Authenticate: blah');
(the above syntax may not be correct, please check the manual)

If the protected folder is outside the server root, and you dont have the 'unix user rights' to the folder to write to it, then you need to give your PHP module the rights to write to that specific folder. Then you can write files in there. else make the folder to chmod 777 ... 🙂

[Anon]

Thank you.

I'll be working on it...

kris