Filename Search Script

epheterson

I have an upload directory on my site, it has become far too large to load the entire directory listing to download one file, my idea for a solution is a simple search script. Most of the time, when going there, I know all or part of the filename I need, so a script that searches a directory for filenames and returns a list of links would be a perfect solution.

Nice and simple: How can I make a script that searches a directory for filenames and returns a list of all matches?

planetsim

What is the purpose of the upload directory are other users going to be downloading the files? if so wouldnt storing the names into a database help?

If not try this

$find = "p";

$d = opendir($directory);
while(($entry=readdir($d))!=false) {
	if (preg_match("/^".$find."/i",$entry)) {
		array_push($array,$entry);
	}	
}

print_r($array);

epheterson

I have a script that allows users to upload a file, once it's uploaded it gets dumped into a /upload directory. That directory has gotten rather nasty, check it out:
www.pheterson.com/upload

planetsim

Well the code i showed should work it will be rather slow with that many files in it. However will other users be downloading Files from this directory?

If so I highly suggest using a database so when they upload the file the need to search is not required.

epheterson

Other users will be downloading form the directory. I haven't worked with databases before, can I create a simple text-based database, or would you suggest a MySQL database.

In order to have a database-oriented search, the script must attempt to refresh the database whenever run, because files are constantly added. On top of that, I already have close to five thousand files in the directory which would need to be indexed.

Will a database be simple to set up?

planetsim

Yes very much so it would work extremely well in this case what you should do is something very simple.

As you currently have the files uploaded in a directory all you need to do is use the filename for the database. And if that is the folder that all users upload to you can easily attach a directory location later on. Upload the file into a BLOB is possible however you really should avoid it its one way to make your database huge.

[edit]
For what Ive talked about there is more than likely a few examples on the forums for how others have done this. As for putting the existing files make a script the reads each file into an array and just loop the array Inserting each row
[/edit]

cyberlew15

just out of interest how could a person theoretically open multiple directories to search for a file i was thinking of a foreach statement calling an array of directories but have been most unsucessful with the writing of the script

rehfeld


$dirs = array(
    'foo',
    'bar/baz',
    'some/dir',
);

foreach ($dirs as $dir) {
    // put your code here
}

but if you want an easy way to search a directory, and all directories inside of that directory, you want a recursive function

heres a sample.


function scandir_r_search($dir, $substring)
{
    $filenames = array();

if (!is_dir($dir) || !is_readable($dir)) {
    return false;
}

if ($handle = opendir($dir)) {
    while (false !== ($filename = readdir($handle))) {

        if ($filename === '.' || $filename === '..') continue;

        if (is_dir("$dir/$filename")) {

            $nested_filenames = scandir_r_search("$dir/$filename", $substring);
            if (is_array($nested_filenames)) {
                $filenames = array_merge($filenames, $nested_filenames);
            }

        } else {
            if (false !== strpos($filename, $substring)) {
                $filenames[] = "$dir/$filename";
            }
        }
    }
    closedir($handle);
}

return $filenames;
}


print_r(scandir_r_search('.', '.php')); // find all filenames that contain .php

that will return all the files in a single dimension array. if you want the files grouped by thier specific dir in a multidim array, youd need to modify it a tiny bit. you can read the manual to see more examples given by users.

btw- i found it comical that the above function is faster than the built in search utility in winxp.
it was still alot faster even when i made the function case insensitive :p

cyberlew15

thanks I have solved the problem in a completely different way but i'm also going to look into the uses of this very cool script.
Just in case anyone is wondering how i did it I opened the dir and added all of it's contents to an array then foreach item in the array that was a directory i opened the directory and searched it with preg_match so if the searched text is anywhere in the file it is found. in case anyone else wants to try out this post a message here if there is any interest i will submit a standalone version of the script