help writing to text file

eyeofthestorm

i've just finished customizing a photo gallery in php to make it fully dynamic...and its all working with all the information in a text file and then i use that information to create the gallery...and now that its done, i want to make an easier way to write to the text file rather than opening up and changing it as needed. So i want to create some sort of form where i can input all the information and even upload a new image and it will write to the text file in the following form:

Awesome Gallery|photos/|142391447_l.jpg-thumbs/142391447_l.jpg-so flamboyant-Mr. moves142391784_l.jpg-thumbs/142391784_l.jpg-wild and crazy is he-Rockin' danny142392907_l.jpg-thumbs/142392907_l.jpg-not anymore-Cut Shallow on tour142394266_l.jpg-thumbs/142394266_l.jpg-the only one wes is in and you can still barely see him-the whole gang51716042_l.jpg-thumbs/51716042_l.jpg-hawaiians are so hawaiian-hawaii51801565_l.jpg-thumbs/51801565_l.jpg-what the...-wide–eyed wescsmyspace.jpg-thumbs/csmyspace.jpg-don't we just rock your face off?-Cut Shallow*cssicck500.jpg-thumbs/cssicck500.jpg-you heard me, shoot.-Epitome of awesome

i have each set of gallery information divided by "|" and then i have more information for the images where each set of image information is divided by "*" and going further, each peice of information is "-". So i was wondering how i would create a form that could write all the information to the text file sorted in the proper way i need in order to read it.

can anyone help me? thanks in advance for any help i might get. =)

sfullman

You are really at the point where you need to use a database. BUT if you're going to store this information in text or a database, I suggest you attempt to get it into some type of tabular form - study up on databases and their organization some.

Your data should be "grouped" and then "sub-grouped", and etc. - with a CSV file, fields are separated by commas and lines are separated by a return chracter. Commas in double quotes are ignored, AND PHP has a function fgetcsv() which is rock-solid reliable.

So if you're going the text file route, do some searching on CSV formatting rules and know them well.

To split your data, use $array = explode('|', $string); which groups by pipe, then you could loop throught that and break down by '*' - but again, better to stick with standard formatting.

However, you really should consider a datbase from what I'm seeing of your programming.

Samuel

eyeofthestorm wrote:
i've just finished customizing a photo gallery in php to make it fully dynamic...and its all working with all the information in a text file and then i use that information to create the gallery...and now that its done, i want to make an easier way to write to the text file rather than opening up and changing it as needed. So i want to create some sort of form where i can input all the information and even upload a new image and it will write to the text file in the following form:

Awesome Gallery|photos/|142391447_l.jpg-thumbs/142391447_l.jpg-so flamboyant-Mr. moves142391784_l.jpg-thumbs/142391784_l.jpg-wild and crazy is he-Rockin' danny142392907_l.jpg-thumbs/142392907_l.jpg-not anymore-Cut Shallow on tour142394266_l.jpg-thumbs/142394266_l.jpg-the only one wes is in and you can still barely see him-the whole gang51716042_l.jpg-thumbs/51716042_l.jpg-hawaiians are so hawaiian-hawaii51801565_l.jpg-thumbs/51801565_l.jpg-what the...-wide–eyed wescsmyspace.jpg-thumbs/csmyspace.jpg-don't we just rock your face off?-Cut Shallow*cssicck500.jpg-thumbs/cssicck500.jpg-you heard me, shoot.-Epitome of awesome

i have each set of gallery information divided by "|" and then i have more information for the images where each set of image information is divided by "*" and going further, each peice of information is "-". So i was wondering how i would create a form that could write all the information to the text file sorted in the proper way i need in order to read it.

can anyone help me? thanks in advance for any help i might get. =)

eyeofthestorm

sfullman wrote:
You are really at the point where you need to use a database. BUT if you're going to store this information in text or a database, I suggest you attempt to get it into some type of tabular form - study up on databases and their organization some.

Your data should be "grouped" and then "sub-grouped", and etc. - with a CSV file, fields are separated by commas and lines are separated by a return chracter. Commas in double quotes are ignored, AND PHP has a function fgetcsv() which is rock-solid reliable.

So if you're going the text file route, do some searching on CSV formatting rules and know them well.

To split your data, use $array = explode('|', $string); which groups by pipe, then you could loop throught that and break down by '*' - but again, better to stick with standard formatting.

However, you really should consider a datbase from what I'm seeing of your programming.

Samuel

well i already have all the code to split my data and everything. Its all set and ready to go, its fully functional and everything...now all i want is a way to write to the file so that if in the future i need more images or albums i won't have to go into the text file and change it and i can just log in and change the file by submiting the right information into an html form. i hope that makes sense.

joshcathay

You may use some filesystem functions to do that
According to my experiences, open the whole file as an array composed by each line as an element, or open it as a whole text block for splitting by defined special characters (like your |*-), both will work.

A solution is to seek for an existing file operating class done by somebody, or write one for yourself to handle similar problems quickly later.

Weedpacket

It shouldn't be too difficult to add to the file. Open it for appending (mode 'a'), write a * to start a new record, and then write the fields of the record, separated by '|'.

eyeofthestorm

yeah thanks a bunch! before i read your replies i had just finished looking through the php.net online documentation for diff functions and came across the fopen and fwrite functions...and i already started on my script...thanks anyways tho! your help means alot! =)