Writing to a file...

LordHart

I've just started writing a pretty basic blog to my site that uses just a text file (well, a php file to be accurate, but I treat it like a txt file) to store the information when entered from a certain page, and when you view it from the main page, it just grabs that information and puts it in with the normal webpage. I've got everything working, but i'm having a problem with two things:

1) I cannot figure out how to have it so when I've entered multiple lines into the box for content, they change into multiple paragraphs or a line break in the text file so i'm currently stuck at making one paragraph postings. Apart from writing the paragraph tags myself, is there a way to have the script change it?

I'll give an example of what I mean:
Changing this.

And this.
And this.

to this:

<p>Changing this.</p><p>And this.<br/>And this.</p>

Something along those lines is what I am after. Can it be done?

and 2) I'm stuck when it comes to adding the post to the text file, and having the post add to the start of the file to make it be the 'latest' post. So far, I can only get it to append to the end of the file.

My code for the writing to file:

$posted_qqq = "posts.php";

//WRITE TO POST PAGE
import_request_variables("gP","r_");
$fp = fopen($posted_qqq,"a") or die("Couldn't open $posted_qqq");
flock( $fp, LOCK_EX );
fwrite($fp,"<h1 class=\"title\">".$r_usertitle."</h1><h2 class=\"byline\">Posted by ".$r_username." at ".date("g:ia d/n/Y")."</h2><p class=\"content\">".$r_postcontent."</p>");
flock( $fp, LOCK_UN );
fclose($fp);

Anybody think they could help me with this? :bemused:

devinemke

[man]nl2br[/man]
use the "x" argument with [man]fopen[/man]

you should really consider using a database instead

LordHart

Okay, I cannot get either or the solutions you suggested to work. I don't know where I should add the nl2br function or how to get it to work. I have three pages: addpost.php, which has the form you use to add the post; posted.php, which has the write to file script (writes to posts.php) and pops up with a little message saying your post has been posted; and then the index.php file which gets the information from posts.php and puts it into the appropriate place when you view the page.

And then using the 'x' argument with fopen doesn't work because the file already exists and I want to add to the beginning of it. 'x' seems to be used to create a file if it doesn't exist, not append something to the beginning of the already existing file.

I tried 'r+' which overwrites the file from the beginning so it will overwrite some of the previous entry. 'w+' erases everything in the file, and then adds the latest post whilst 'w' does the same. Both 'a' and 'a+' just add to the end of the file.

The reason I don't want to use a database is basically because to add MySQL to my hosting service will cost me more money, which I don't have.

Rodney_H_

I think this solution will work for you:

<?php
// file
$posted_qqq = "posts.php";

// string to add to file
$string = '<h1 class="title">' . $r_usertitle . '</h1>' . "\n";
$string .= '<h2 class="byline">Posted by ' . $r_username;
$string .= ' at ' . date("g:ia d/n/Y") . '</h2>' . "\n";
$string .= '<p class="content">' . nl2br($r_postcontent) . '</p>' . "\n";

// if file exists and is writable
if(file_exists($posted_qqq) && is_writable($posted_qqq)){
	// get contents of file prior to new add
	$old = file_get_contents($posted_qqq);
	// create file handle for file in 'w' mode
	$fp = fopen($posted_qqq,'w');
	flock($fp, LOCK_EX);
	$new = $string; // new material
	$new .= $old; // old at bottom
	if($result = fwrite($fp,$new)){
		echo 'success';
	} else {
		echo 'unable to write to file.';
	}
	flock($fp, LOCK_UN);
	fclose($fp);
} else {
	echo 'file <' . $posted_qqq . '> does not exist or is not writable.';
}
?>

LordHart

Just tried it out and it is freaking perfect! Thanks alot for that mate! 😃

Rodney_H_

Glad it helped. The usage of nl2br, devinemke's idea, works great here.

As owner of this thread, would you please go to Thread Tools (upper right) and 'Mark This Thread Resolved' please?

Thanks.

Take care.