[RESOLVED] Using PHP to write to a text file

joviyach

I am brand new to using PHP and I have been trying to write a simple guestbook that writes to a flat file. All I can get it to do so far, is send me my "friendly error message" saying that it failed to create/write to the flat file.

I initially thought this was a problem with my WAMP implementation, so I tried this on my PHP webhosting account as well, same thing. I have attached the code below, any suggestions for the noob? 😕

<?php
// create short variable names
$username = $POST['username'];
$eaddress = $POST['eaddress'];
$comments = $_POST['comments'];

$DOCUMENT_ROOT = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];
?>
<html>
<head>
<title>Guestbook Submission Process</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php

$outputstring = $username." username \t".$eaddress." eaddress \t".$comments." comments \t";

// open file for appending
@ $fp = fopen("$DOCUMENT_ROOT/../guest/guest.txt", 'ab');

if (!$fp)
{
echo '<p>Someone broke it again. </p>';
exit;
}

fwrite($fp, $outputstring, strlen($outputstring));

fclose($fp);

echo '<p>Succes! </p>';
?>
</body>
</html>

sneakyimp

try removing the @ sign when you open the file. you will probably get an error message this is more informative than just 'Someone broke it again'

joviyach

I did as you suggested, and it revealed that it was not able to write to the location specified here...

("$DOCUMENT_ROOT/../guest/guest.txt", 'ab');

So, I made it changed this to...

("guest.txt", 'ab');

Now it works, but writes the file to root because that is what the new command asks it to do. I will have to experiment with it to see why it won't write otherwise.

Thanks,

Jim

blanius

Most likley a permissions issue make sure the sub directory allows write.

sneakyimp

what he means is that you will need to properly set the permissions on the folder where guest.txt ends up being located. you will need to give write access to whatever user php is running under.

joviyach

I got this working. The problem was that I needed to add the true path in this line...

$DOCUMENT_ROOT = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];

To get it so see the folder where guest.txt was to reside. The underlying problem is that the instructor of the class I am uploading these for had to be creative in allowing outside access to the WAMP server we're using. The college would not allow FTP.