don't quite know what to call it...

[Zed]

I have been researching/searching countless pages/manuals/crap etc... and cannot find what I'm looking for.
plus the fact that I'm clinically dumb, when it comes to php.

here's the dilemna...

I have a site dedicated to music, and on one "branch" of that site, I am focussing on tablature (basic music notes) and have loaded about 300 of files with extentions of .txt , .crd , .btab , .lyr , *.tab.

The basic idea is for my website to search through the files and list them (on a webpage) alphabetically.

THE LO-DOWN

lets say I had 5 songs:
song 1 = lets_get_it_on.crd
song 2 = paradise_city.tab
song 3 = new_york.crd
song 4 = goof_troop.lyr
song 5 = low_down_dirty_shame.btab

now lets say one of my users wants to look up a tab starting with the letter L. I would like the code to search through the directory and come up with song 1 & 5 and display them.

Now I'm probably just asking too much (but I hope not 😃 ) and if I am I can blame it on my php ignorance :rolleyes:

but it seems like these people have been able to pull it off, or something like it atleast. http://www.christianguitar.ws/praise/

any help or a good ol' point-me-in-the-right-bloody-direction would be a huge help!!

Zed

[MrAlaska]

Most people would use a database for that. You would put the file names, relevant information, and pointers to the files in a database and search against that.

You can do reading file names. I have never tried it that way, but if I needed to I think my first attempt would be to try to use the dir commands, such as readdir()
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.readdir.php

[Zed]

thanks a ton MrA for pointing me in the right direction.

I AM gettings somewhere... believe it or not.

I'm using the code:

<?
$handle=opendir('.');
while (false!==($file = readdir($handle))) {
if ($file != "." && $file != ".." && $file != "index.php" && $file != "index1.php" && $file != "index.phtml") {
$filename = str_replace(""," ",$file);

$filename = str_replace(".txt","",$file);
$fTime = filemtime($file);
$today = getdate($fTime);
$month = $today['month'];
$mday = $today['mday'];
$year = $today['year'];
$filename = str_replace(".tab","",$filename);
$filename = str_replace(".crd","",$filename);
$filename = str_replace(".btab","",$filename);
$filename = str_replace(".lyr","",$filename);
echo "<li><a href=$file class=red target=blank>$filename</a> -<font size=1> uploaded on <font color=black>$month $mday, $year</font></font></li>
";
}
}
closedir($handle);
?>

and I've made a few modifications, what I'm working on now is eliminating the unnecessary files from the list.

example

if users want to search JUST for "A" what string can I add to limit the array?

[MrAlaska]

Then I think you would use string comparison operators against the file name. For instance the following code should (haven't tested it) only return names that have a capitol "A" in them, or you could use stristr() to make it case insensitive. If you wanted to make more complex searches, there are other string comparison operators available or the ereg functions would work also.
http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.strings.php
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.strstr.php

<?php
$handle=opendir('.');
while (false!==($file = readdir($handle))) {
	if ($file != "." && $file != ".." &&
		$file != "index.php" &&
		$file != "index1.php" &&
		$file != "index.phtml" &&
		(strstr($file, "A"))// test for condition in name
		){
		$filename = str_replace("_"," ",$file);
		$filename = str_replace(".txt","",$file);
		$fTime = filemtime($file);
		$today = getdate($fTime);
		$month = $today['month'];
		$mday = $today['mday'];
		$year = $today['year'];
		$filename = str_replace(".tab","",$filename);
		$filename = str_replace(".crd","",$filename);
		$filename = str_replace(".btab","",$filename);
		$filename = str_replace(".lyr","",$filename);
		echo "<li><a href=$file class=red target=_blank>$filename</a>
			-<font size=1> uploaded on
			<font color=black>$month $mday, $year</font></font></li>
		";
	}
}
closedir($handle);

?>

[Zed]

i've run into another problem where, the values that are returned are returned in order of "last updated" I thought I'd tinker with the string a bit and do this:

<?php
$handle=opendir('.');
while (false!==($file = readdir($handle))) {
if ($file != "." && $file != ".." &&
$file != "index.php" &&
$file != "index1.php" &&
$file != "index.phtml" &&
(strstr($file, "B"))
){
$filename = str_replace("_"," ",$file);
$filename = str_replace(".tab","",$filename);
$filename = str_replace(".crd","",$filename);
$filename = str_replace(".btab","",$filename);
$filename = str_replace(".lyr","",$filename);
echo "<li><a href=$file class=red>$filename</a>
</li>
";
}
}
closedir($handle);

?>

but it keeps happening. I cann't find an ereg or whatever to perform what I want. I imagine it is possible.... riiiiight? :rolleyes:

[MrAlaska]

The filenames are returned in the order in which they are stored by the filesystem, I don't think you have any choices in that matter. To rearrange them; instead of printing them on the fly you need to read them into an array, then resort the array, then print it out.

[Zed]

okay, wow..... hmmm....

Since I don't know what you are talking about, I think I'll leave it the way it is.... maybe....

[MrAlaska]

It would not be much of a change to your script. In the documentation for readdir, check out the user comments. This is what one reader offered as his solution, it appears as if you could substitute $files[]=$file; for your echo statement, then you do the sort(), then loop through $files with a foreach() and echo them out.

From user comments:
<?
if ($dir = @opendir("$directory")) {
while($file=readdir($dir))
{
$files[]=$file;
}
sort($files);
reset ($files);
while (list ($key, $val) = each ($files)) {
// do what U want 😉
}
closedir($dir);
}
?>

[Zed]

alright.... I thought I saw that one, but I couldn't remember where.

now, maybe I'm taking you too literally, or maybe I'm dumb 😉 (which is quite possible)

but I cannot come up with a plausable solution, Nothing I try works.

If you could please provide a example which includes my prev script that would be awesome.

---

Even God hates Mondays.

.. Zed