removing text from a text file using php

chrislive

I have written a little chat program however the chat tends to get too long so...

two thing i would LOVE help with (because im only learning PHP for the first time in the last 2 weeks)

firstly.. can a php page be written to go to the bottom of the page by default... at the moment im using a HTML/JAVASCRIPT ONLOAD command to do it with a anchor

secondly.. I would like one of the two options.. at the moment when i submit a message it is written to the bottom of the text file. I did it this way because i found it weird to have it up the top...

a) my script to write to one text file when I submit a message, then either the php just gather the text from the LAST 10 lines or so.. OR then we have another file that is created using only the last 10 lines and i print that to my messages.php file

b) (if it has to be this way) as a new message is added to the bottom then the top message (if their are 10 messages already entered) is deleted.

How would I do such a thing?

Do you want me to paste my submit.php file here??

Thanks
Chris

onion2k

First point: No, PHP can't move a page to the bottom. Thats a client-side thing, so stick with Javascript.

Second point: Either read the contents of the file into a string, put the new bit at the start, and then save the lot out again..


$string = file_get_contents("file.txt");

$string = $newstuff.$string;

$file = fopen("file.txt","w");
fwrite($string,$file);
fclose($file);

Or put the new stuff at the bottom of the file as you're doing now, and when you open the file read everything into an array and then reverse the array..


$array = read_file("file.txt");
array_reverse($array);
foreach($array as $line) {
  echo $line;
}

Or use a database.

Note: As ever I've not checked that code so it might need tweaking.

chrislive

thank you for your reply but i think that what u posted isnt going to accomplish what I want it to...

I will try to restate because the problem is probably ME 😛

basically this is what i think will be what i WANT

I want (as it currently does) the submit to add the chat to the bottom of the text file.

THEN (or before) the php will check the txt document. If it has 10 lines of chat then it will remove the top one (in my case the one that is the oldest)

this is my chat.php which is loaded in a frame and posts the data entered in the chat...


<head><link href="../chrislive.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> 
</head>
<body bgcolor="5898C4" topmargin="0">
<div align="center"> 
  <?
 echo '<HTML>';
 // Chat Display
  if (!isset($_POST[name])) {
   print "<body onload=\"document.chatForm.name.focus();\">";
   print "<FORM ACTION=\"chat.php\" METHOD=\"POST\" NAME=\"chatForm\">";
   print "<font color=\"#6A6A6A\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\"><B>name:</B></font> <INPUT TYPE=\"text\" NAME=\"name\" MAXLENGTH=50>&nbsp;";
  }
  else {
   print "<body onload=\"document.chatForm.chat.focus();\">";
   print "<FORM ACTION=\"chat.php\" METHOD=\"POST\" NAME=\"chatForm\">";
   if ($_POST[name]=="") {
    $_POST[name]="anonymous";
   }
   }
   print "<font color=\"#6A6A6A\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\"><B>name:</B></font> <font color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">$name</font>&nbsp;<INPUT TYPE=\"hidden\" NAME=\"name\" VALUE=\"$name\">";
   $fp=fopen("./userlog.txt",'a');
   $fs="nickname: $name\nIP: $_SERVER[REMOTE_ADDR]\nISP: $_SERVER[REMOTE_HOST]\nUser Agent: $_SERVER[HTTP_USER_AGENT]\nMessage: $chat";
   fputs($fp,$fs);
   fclose($fp);
   $fp = fopen($_POST['name'] . '.usr','w');
   fputs($fp,'');
   fclose($fp);
  }
  print "<font color=\"#6A6A6A\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\"><B>message:</B></font> <INPUT TYPE=\"text\" NAME=\"chat\" size=\"40\" MAXLENGTH=250>&nbsp;<INPUT TYPE=\"submit\" VALUE=\"Send!\">&nbsp;";
 if ($_POST[chat]!="") {
  $old=file_get_contents("livechat.txt");
  $fp=fopen("livechat.txt",'w');
  $colfnt = array ("[blue]","[black]","[green]","[red]","[gray]","[pink]","[orange]","[white]");
  $ccolfnt = array ("</FONT><font color=\"blue\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"black\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"green\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"red\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"grey\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"#pink\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"orange\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"#FFFFFF\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">");
  $uc = $_POST['chat'];
  $uc = strip_tags($uc,'<b><i><tt><u><del><a>');
  $uc = str_replace ( ":)", "<IMG SRC=\"smilies/smile.gif\">", $uc );
  $uc = str_replace ( ":(", "<IMG SRC=\"smilies/sad.gif\">", $uc );
  $uc = str_replace ( ";)", "<IMG SRC=\"smilies/wink.gif\">", $uc );
  $uc = str_replace ( $colfnt, $ccolfnt, $uc );
  $uc = $uc . "</FONT>";
  $_POST[name] = strip_tags($_POST[name]);
  $tw="$old \n \n<font color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\"><b><&nbsp;</b><font color=\"#FFFFFF\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\"><b>$_POST[name]</b></font> <font color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\"><b>></b> <font color=\"#FFFFFF\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">$uc</font><br>";
  $ttw=stripslashes($tw);
  fputs($fp,$ttw);
  fclose($fp);
  unset($chat);
 }
?>
</div>

onion2k

Instead of $old=file_get_contents("livechat.txt"); use $old=file("livechat.txt");, and then $old = array_slice($old,10) to get the bottom 10 lines, then implode("\n",$old) to glue it all back together.

You'll need to do an nl2br() on the incoming text before you save it to the file in order to ensure theres 1 entry per line in livetext.txt.

chrislive

i cant get this working either haha sorry to waste your time...

how about this...

how do you print the contents of a text file ... but only the last 10 lines OR if its easier the last 3bytes or something... this will do exactly what I need it to.. this will be within the messages.php page not on the submittion page

onion2k

To get the last 10 lines you has to read the entire contents of the file into memory and then get rid of the first n lines leaving the last 10. You don't know what position the first of the 10 lines begins at.

Using what I put earlier:

//Read the text file into an array with 1 line per entry:
$old=file("livechat.txt");

//Slice the array, only keeping the last 10 entries:
$old = array_slice($old,10);

//Turn the array back into text with 1 entry per line:
implode("\n",$old);

For this to work your text file will have to be like this:

This is line 1
This is line 2
This is line 3
This is line 4
This is line 5

Obviously if someone sends a carriage return then that'll be stored as a new line in the text file, which would be wrong. In order to fix this, we'd use nl2br() to convert the carriage return(s) to <br> tags before we save the text file.

What makes you think that isn't working? Do you get an error when you try it? If so, whats the error?

chrislive

when i add that to the rules all that appears on the chat window is this:

Array < test > chris
and when i enter a new msg it replaces the old one with the new one...

this is how the script looks now (just the relevant section)

correct? or am i placing it in the wrong spot? i replaced the

$old=file_get_contents("livechat.txt");

so now looks like this...


if ($_POST[chat]!="") {

//Read the text file into an array with 1 line per entry:
$old=file("livechat.txt");

//Slice the array, only keeping the last 10 entries:
$old = array_slice($old,10);

//Turn the array back into text with 1 entry per line:
implode("\n",$old);


  $fp=fopen("livechat.txt",'w');
  $colfnt = array ("[blue]","[black]","[green]","[red]","[gray]","[pink]","[orange]","[white]");
  $ccolfnt = array ("</FONT><font color=\"blue\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"black\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"green\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"red\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"grey\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"#pink\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"orange\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"#FFFFFF\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">");
  $uc = $_POST['chat'];

onion2k

Doh.

Silly mistake by me.

implode("\n",$old);

should be

$old = implode("\n",$old);

chrislive

thanks but its still not 'adding' on its just oevrwritting.. could that be because I only have 1 message at the moment?

onion2k

Could be. Try adding some more and find out. :p

chrislive

ahhhh working like a charm 😛 THANKS!!!

now ill create another set of scripts to create a large log file 😃

check out my page if you like www.chrisliveonline.com/chatter.htm

chrislive

no no no its not sorry

i will clear the text the first time.. but then after that for some reason it wont.. it will just keep adding text

chrislive

the file has jumped from being 2000 to 600000 which means it wont load properly...

this is the file:
http://www.chrisliveonline.com/chat/livechat.txt

chrislive

ok it seems to work at first but after the first refresh the file starts to get VERY BIG it isnt killing the text like it should...

this is the script so far... have i got everything in the right place?


<head><link href="../chrislive.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> 
</head>
<body bgcolor="5898C4" topmargin="0">
<div align="center"> 
  <?
 echo '<HTML>';
 // Chat Display
  if (!isset($_POST[name])) {
   print "<body onload=\"document.chatForm.name.focus();\">";
   print "<FORM ACTION=\"chat.php\" METHOD=\"POST\" NAME=\"chatForm\">";
   print "<font color=\"#6A6A6A\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\"><B>name:</B></font> <INPUT TYPE=\"text\" NAME=\"name\" MAXLENGTH=50>&nbsp;";
  }
  else {
   print "<body onload=\"document.chatForm.chat.focus();\">";
   print "<FORM ACTION=\"chat.php\" METHOD=\"POST\" NAME=\"chatForm\">";
   if ($_POST[name]=="") {
    $_POST[name]="anonymous";
   }
   print "<font color=\"#6A6A6A\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\"><B>name:</B></font> <font color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">$name</font>&nbsp;<INPUT TYPE=\"hidden\" NAME=\"name\" VALUE=\"$name\">";
   $fp=fopen("./userlog.txt",'a');
   $fs="nickname: $name\nIP: $_SERVER[REMOTE_ADDR]\nISP: $_SERVER[REMOTE_HOST]\nUser Agent: $_SERVER[HTTP_USER_AGENT]\nMessage: $chat";
   fputs($fp,$fs);
   fclose($fp);
   $fp = fopen($_POST['name'] . '.usr','w');
   fputs($fp,'');
   fclose($fp);
  }
  print "<font color=\"#6A6A6A\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\"><B>message:</B></font> <INPUT TYPE=\"text\" NAME=\"chat\" size=\"40\" MAXLENGTH=250>&nbsp;<INPUT TYPE=\"submit\" VALUE=\"Send!\">&nbsp;";

 if ($_POST[chat]!="") {

//Read the text file into an array with 1 line per entry:
$old=file("livechat.txt");

//Slice the array, only keeping the last 10 entries:
$old = array_slice($old,10);

//Turn the array back into text with 1 entry per line:
$old = implode("\n",$old);

  $fp=fopen("livechat.txt",'w');
  $colfnt = array ("[blue]","[black]","[green]","[red]","[gray]","[pink]","[orange]","[white]");
  $ccolfnt = array ("</FONT><font color=\"blue\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"black\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"green\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"red\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"grey\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"#pink\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"orange\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">","</FONT><font color=\"#FFFFFF\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">");
  $uc = $_POST['chat'];
  $uc = strip_tags($uc,'<b><i><tt><u><del><a>');
  $uc = str_replace ( ":)", "<IMG SRC=\"smilies/smile.gif\">", $uc );
  $uc = str_replace ( $colfnt, $ccolfnt, $uc );
  $uc = $uc . "</FONT>";
  $_POST[name] = strip_tags($_POST[name]);
  $tw="$old \n \n<font color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\"><b><&nbsp;</b><font color=\"#FFFFFF\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\"><b>$_POST[name]</b></font> <font color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\"><b>></b> <font color=\"#FFFFFF\" size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">$uc</font><br>";
  $ttw=stripslashes($tw);
  fputs($fp,$ttw);
  fclose($fp);
  unset($chat);
 }
?>
</div>