fread()

[earthlingzed]

Does anyone know how I would get the local path to a file a user has specified with a file input form element?

I am trying to read the contents of this file and then send it via email without having to upload the file. Here is what I have so far for the file read:

#set up varaibles for easy reference
$file_name = $HTTP_POST_FILES["newsletter"]["name"];			#the file name
$file_temp = $HTTP_POST_FILES["newsletter"]["temp"];			#temporary location of file storage
$file = $file_temp.$file_name;									#file reference

#open file and insert content
$fo = fopen($file,"r");
$letter = fread ($fo, filesize ($file));
fclose($fo);

I keep getting an error telling me that the re is no such file. It is trying to read off of the server and not from teh local file.

Seems like a pretty simple fix?!

[codeDV]

You can't read the contents of a file on a clients system for obvious security reasons. The file must be uploaded with the clients request before you can view it. You are sent no information about the path of the file on the users system - only the file name and the file content.

[earthlingzed]

Yeah, that makes sense. I was thinking aobut it the wrong way. I got it to work by referingthe the temporary location on the server like this:

#set up varaibles for easy reference
$file_temp = $_FILES["newsletter"]["temp"];			#temporary location of file storage
$file_tempname = $_FILES["newsletter"]["tmp_name"];	#temporary name of file while being copied	

#open file and insert content
$fo = fopen($file_temp.$file_tempname,"r");
$letter = fread ($fo, filesize ($newsletter));
fclose($fo);

Hope this helps some one in the future.

[helz]

so if i use
$content = fread($filepath,$fileaccesstype);

<textarea name='$filename'>$content</textarea>

that will show the content of the file inside the textarea aslong as the file is a text file?

i wonder what type of files can be viewed in this way

[earthlingzed]

Yeah, that should work.

[codeDV]

I'd advise the use of htmlspecialchars() to display the file content. This function converts any characters that may be interpreted as HTML e.g <>" to their asociated entities e.g. &quot;.

If not part or all of your file may be parsed as HTML by the browser. e.g a file containing </textarea> will close the text area box.