date&time, writing to lines & cookies

[Anon]

1. I write to a file using a form, and then call the values of the file back to use in other pages, how do I insert the date and time into the file as a variable?

2. I use a poll script, which works quite nicely, but currently, for a vote yes I write to a yes file (in which I +1 to the current value) and for a no vote I write to a no file. Is there anyway to write to a specific line.

3. How do I set a cookie? For my poll script I want to display the poll question unless a cookie is set which says you have voted. Any ideas?

Many thanks,

creator.genesis

[Anon]

Your third Question can be answered looking at the man:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.setcookie.php

regards ali

[Anon]

1. use the time() and/or date() functions to grab the date and write to your txt file.

2. Pull the contents of the file into and array using the file() function. Insert the new data into the array and then write it back to the txt file.

Take a look at MySQL, it's a better way to store/update/retrieve data than a txt file.

[Anon]

if you are writing to files and not a database, you are going to run into huge problems when more than one user visits the page at once.

The first php script i ever wrote was a hit counter. I had a txt file that had a number in it. Everytime someone visited the page, it would open the txt file, and add 1 to it, then save it. When two or more people visited my site at the same exact instance, on person would open the text file while the other was in the process of updating it. The result was that the hit counter woudl be reset to zero.

If this is what you are doing, i would recommend storing the results in a MySQL [or similar] database.

[Anon]

I wouldn't worry too much, the site is basically a private storage area for my stuff, visited solely by me and one very close friend, so the chances of both of us viewing it at any one time are exceedingly remote!