Monitoring Upload Status

marty

I am trying to write a script that displays the status of a file upload. I imagine that since files uploaded via a form (HTTP POST) are first stored in memory and then copied to the location specified in the upload script, checking the number of bytes uploaded could somehow be acomplished by accessing the memory.

I am not sure where to begin here, so If someone could point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it. Again, the basic premise is: I need to dynamically check the amount of bytes uploaded as the file is being transferred to the server. (I'll then compare that number to the file_size variable passed from the form.

I am hoping this is possible. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

marty

jc94062

This is not possible in PHP (unless you run a cronjob every second), you need something that can be updated instantly, like Javascript (which is fairly instant).

PHP is server side, it executes before the rest of the page loads and so cannot do what you want it to do, at least thats what I've seen from the posts like this before.

Anon

And, the upload is done through a request from client to server. The server doesn't send anything back untill the request is complete, so you can't send anything to the client untill the client has finished sending it's data to the server.

SO the progress you could indicate is 'operation completed'

Anon

Hashing this out...

On submitting, you use javascript to open a popup to a status.php and then submit the form as normal.

Your normal browser window is busy uploading the file...

Meanwhile, your popup page is checking the upload directory and printing the current file size, then refreshing every second or couple of seconds to update.

Sounds simple enough...

marty

Yes, using JavaScript to popup a status.php is what I had in mind. The problem with your solution is that the file doesn't go from the browser directly to the upload directory... between the directory on the client and the target directory on the server, it is stored in memory (i am assuming the memory allocated to php).

So... I think the solution would involve checking the size of this file in the php-memory on the server...

are we getting closer?

[deleted]

Tiny problems:

During an upload, PHP stores the file in the temp directory, under a random (temporary) filename.
- How would you find out which of the random files is 'your' file?
- Most filesystems buffer the disk-writes, so it may well be that the filesize on disk remains zero untill the upload is completed.

As long as we're doing things the hard way, how about writing your own little php-file-upload script?

PHP can listen on sockets (or be started by the inetd on unix when a connection is made).
Then you could tell your upload form to post to that 'server' and you'd use PHP so receive the data. Then you'd get the full header so you know the filenames etc, and you'd get the data so you can tell the progress.

Anon

hmm... so this is truly the hard way? you say it would be asier to do with javascript? can javascript read the file buffer as the file is being loaded in?

Anon

Actually, I was suggesting javascript only to open a 2nd window (popup). That way you would have a window to provide status while the other was busy uploading the file. I gues you could do the same thing by using frames.

From the rest of the replies, providing status on the file upload isn't looking so good. I'll try to play with some ideas I have this weekend. Who knows!!

[deleted]

No, I'm saying you can't do it with javascript nor a 'normal' PHP script because there's no way to get the file-information.

The 'easiest' way I think would be to create your own file-receive script to handle the uploads.. but that's not easy.. :-)