fwrite causing overlaps

[ShawnD]

with my post news thing, it's starting to overlap and i have no clue why. by overlap i mean the posts overlap each other and don't save, only the last post saves and pieces of the old post remain. here is the source

<?php

//if the guy actually posted something....
if(!empty($HTTP_POST_VARS['post'])) {


//setup the date format
$date = date(r);

//setup the style for the posted data
$post = "<hr><br>	  

	  	  Date: <b>$date</b>
	      <br>
	  	  Posted By: <b>$HTTP_POST_VARS[name]</b>
	      <br>
	  	  Title: <b>$HTTP_POST_VARS[title]</b>
	      <br>
	  	  <br>$HTTP_POST_VARS[post]

<br>";

$file = "./postdata_tfc.inc";
//open postdata_tfc.inc with read and write access
$open = fopen("$file","r+");


//save the file including the post as postdata_tfc.inc
fwrite($open,$post);


//close postdata_tfc.inc
fclose($open);

echo('<p align="center"><font size="6">POST ENTERED SUCCESSFULLY</font></p>');
echo('<p align="center"><font size="3"><a href="tfc.php?page=index">click here to return to main page</a></font></p>');


}
else {
echo ('you have to actually post something!');
}
?>

[IceD]

[man]fopen[/man]
'r+' - Open for reading and writing; place the file pointer at the beginning of the file.

[128kb_com]

You may want to try 'a' or 'a+'

[ShawnD]

i thought that i should read the previous file into memory then bind the post to the previous file then save it as the file but when i do that i get a bunch of errors with fwrite being invalid

$file = "./postdata_tfc.inc";
//open postdata_tfc.inc with read and write access
$open = fopen("$file","r+");

//load postdata_tfc.inc into $buffer with a max of 30000 digits
$buffer = fgets($open,30000)

$save = $post.$buffer




//save the file including the post as postdata_tfc.inc
fwrite($open,$save);


//close postdata_tfc.inc
fclose($open);

[128kb_com]

I'm not sure if this will solve your problem but your optional bytes argument to fgets() is 30,000! A sufficient enough buffer for reading a line would be 1024 (depending). What does the file look like and how much do you have to read?

[ShawnD]

well i plan on making the file the news file, i'll show you how many characters 1024 is

123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234
5678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567
890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345
67890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890
123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012
345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456
789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012
34567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456
78901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456
7890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234
5678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012
3456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890
1234567890

[128kb_com]

Like I said,

A sufficient enough buffer for reading a line would be 1024 (depending). What does the file look like and how much do you have to read?

[ShawnD]

ok now i brought the buffer read to 8196 but now it says the date is giving errors! how does the date give errors now but not before grr!!!!!

here is the entire code now

<?php

//if the guy actually posted something....
if(!empty($HTTP_POST_VARS['post'])) {


//setup the date format
$date = date('r');

//setup the style for the posted data
$post = "<hr><br>	  

	  	  Date: <b>$date</b>
	      <br>
	  	  Posted By: <b>$HTTP_POST_VARS[name]</b>
	      <br>
	  	  Title: <b>$HTTP_POST_VARS[title]</b>
	      <br>
	  	  <br>$HTTP_POST_VARS[post]

<br>";

$file = "./postdata_tfc.inc";
//open postdata_tfc.inc with read and write access
$open = fopen("$file","r+");

//load postdata_tfc.inc into $buffer with a max of 10000 digits
$buffer = fgets($open,8192);

$save = $post.$buffer;


//save the file including the post as postdata_tfc.inc
fwrite($open,$save);


//close postdata_tfc.inc
fclose($open);

echo('<p align="center"><font size="6">POST ENTERED SUCCESSFULLY</font></p>');
echo('<p align="center"><font size="3"><a href="tfc.php?page=index">click here to return to main page</a></font></p>');


}
else {
echo ('you have to actually post something!');
}
?>

look at line 8, the one saying $date = date('r');
here is the error
PHP Notice: Use of undefined constant r - assumed 'r' in whatever.php on line 8

i also tried date("r"); and date(r);

[ShawnD]

the file it's reading is 14kb big

[Weedpacket]

Have you tried using a or a+ and just appending to the file? Then you don't need to read it first.

As for the overlap with bits of old posts remaining, I don't see any code that determines where one post leaves off and the next begins.

Thirdly, if you want to read in the whole file, then you've got three options:

1. Use file() and join() the resulting array elements together.

2. If the file is accessible on your local filesystem, use filesize() to find out just how big it really is.

3. Use the fgets() in a loop, and read the file in in pieces.

Mindlessly picking a big number in hopes that the file will never exceed it (and your system will never suffer the consequences of allocating an oversized buffer) is a bad design move.

For the date() problem. Well, date('r') works for me, date("r") does too, and PHP complains about an undefined constant (as it should) for date(r).

[ShawnD]

i can't do a or a+ because i want newest posts on top.

you say "I don't see any code that determines where one post leaves off and the next begins"
what about that buffer thing i put there? yes i know it's poorly programmed as a buffer but it still should read the old file into memory then save the file as the post then the old file together. it has overlap no matter what size of a buffer i setup there.

i'm gonna scrap this project i guess. i suck too much to be a PHP programmer, maybe i could get a job with MS as a C programmer 😃

thanks for the help anyway 🙂