product database and product images

searain

table of products

products_id

products_code
products_name
products_price

images is saved in a folder with product_code value as the folder name

/images/$product_code/1.jpg
/images/$product_code/2.jpg

(for example, if the products_code is A-0, the image will be /images/A-01/1.jpg, /images/A-01/2.jpg, )

When I delete the product from the database. the images folder will become "orphan", no product pointing to this image folder.

I want to write a script. That once a while, run this script.

1) it will get all the folders' names under the folder /images/.
2) it will get all the products_codes from the database.
3) it will match the results of 1) and 2) and get the folders' names from 1) that are not in the products_codes from 2), which means these prducts has been deleted.
4) with the list from 3), i can manually delete these images. or I may have another scripts running to delete these "orphan" image folders.

step 2) is just a simple sql.
step 3) we can use some kind array function. (convert 2) and 3) to array first)

My first question is about step 1)

How can I get all the folders names under the folder /images/?

$path=$_SERVER['document_root']."/images/";

chdir($path);
$dir=opendir(".");
while ($file=readdir($dir))
{
if (($file!=".")&&($file!=".."))
{
$folderName[]=$file;
}

Will this script work? folder is also a file right?

My next question, is there any better way to handle these "orphaned" image folders?

the image folders maybe uploaded to ftp and owned by ftp user with permission rw-r--r--. So when I delete the product from database through web access administration interface, the program page cannot delete the image at the same time (apache user cannot delete the file owned by ftp user and permission is rw-r--r--)
Thanks!

devinemke

query the db and get all of the unique product codes and load them into an array
load all of the folders in /images/ into an array (use [man]scandir[/man] if you have PHP5, use [man]opendir[/man], [man]readdir[/man] if you have PHP4)
compare the two arrays using [man]array_diff[/man]
[man]unlink[/man] the files/folders that are not present in the db array.

searain

if all these are done in php, i need a step before step 4.

change permission on the image folders (owner: ftp user, permission: rw-r--r--) to rwxrwxrwx.

or change owner from the ftp user to apache user on the image folders.

But I have to do this from the unix commands line as the root.

Any better ideas about handling the permission?

Or that is proftp set up issue? I can set up proftp, so any files ftpped to other folders with the permission as rw-r--r--, but any folders ftpped to the /images/ with the permission as rwxrwxrwx?

Thanks!

cmancone

In my limited experience, your webserver will automatically assign a chmod value to any folder such that php won't be able to write. Whether this value is given by the server or by the ftp program I don't know. This means that you can't use PHP to change the chmod values to allow PHP to write to a folder. You have to use a separate program. The nicest way is with ssh, if your server allows it. Otherwise, you have to find an ftp program that allows you to chmod folders.

However, if php creates a directory it will always be able to write to it. So, you can (through ftp or ssh) chmod the main folder that your php program will write to, and then have your program create folders as needed. This is usually what I do.

searain

I allowed the user to ftp the image to the server or upload image through web interface to the server. the image upload through web interface, the owner is the apache user, which could be deleted by php. But the images ftpped to the server, it will belong to ftp user with permission preset for the whole site as rw-r--r--, which cannot be delete by php.

Because, the users may have all the images done in the desktop, and ftp them to the server in a batch. so i prefer not to take the ftp images approach away from them.

I am not an experienced proftpd user, but I think I might be able to set up the proftpd, make the files to certain directory with permissions different than to other directory.

If there is no php solution (it seems like that), I may have to look at proftp manual for proftp solution. At the moment, I will ssh to change the permission manually when I use php to delete image folders.

Thanks!