Big dilemma

[matchoo]

Ok my friends...

I volunteered to do some PHP coding for a small non-profit that needs a lot of help. The guy who built their existing website wouldn't let me have access for months - but then I finally got around him to see what he had built... it is a nightmare - and I need help figuring out what to do. Please read on...

Basically, this organization has thousands of people writing reports and uploading them to the server. All of these reports are in HTML. There is no user database - though security is implemented via .htaccess. There is no database at all actually, which leads to my problem.

This organization wants to start organizing their reports by category. So if I am writing a report about subject X and there are already six subject X reports - I should be able to go to a form and have it pre-populated with certain static properties of Subject X. But since all the reports are in HTML - there is no way to do this without culling each file.

My question is:::> Are there any tools out there that traverse directories, parse files and attempt to make some sense out of them for insertion into a relational database?

I know I am asking for a magic wand of sorts - but jeez - I'm desperate.

Thanks

-Matchoo

[coreyp_1]

I'm afraid that there's no magic wand that I know of. I guess you have three options: (1) cut your losses and begin with a new sturcture, designed for expandability. (2) write a custom script to do what you need (you'll probably still need to write a custom system, or use a CMS of some sort). (3) do nothing, and let the person who created the mess deal with it.

Personally, I would probably take option 2, beginning with a modified CMS, then writing a script to import the current data into it. Then again, I always like to do things the hard way... 😃

Sorry I couldn't be more positive.

[Najjar]

The only thing I can think of is writing a PHP code to read all files store the filename, contents and an auto increment ID in one table in the database.
From there you can see the data and have a better way to categorize it.