PHP to text file ordering

[stylefrog]

Hi there,

I've been working on a PHP/Flash message board - I got everything working perfectly, the only problem was the new entries were written at the end of the file as apposed to the start. This meant that the user had to scroll down to see the most recent entries.

This where we got to:

<?

if (!isset($name) || !isset($email) || !isset($message) || empty($name) || empty($email) || empty($message)) {
print "&result=Fail";
print "&errorMsg=" . urlencode("Input required for all fields.");
exit;
}

$email = strtolower($email);

addentry($name, $email, $message);

function addentry($name, $email, $message) {

$posted = strftime("%D %I:%M %p");

$message = stripslashes($message);

$file = fopen('entry.txt', 'r+');
flock($file, LOCK_EX);  // tell flock what it should do
$old = fread($file, filesize($file));  // read in old data first
fseek($file, 21, 0);

if (!$file) {
print "&result=Fail";
print "&errorMsg=" . urlencode("Could not open entry.txt file. Change CHMOD levels to 666.");   // 766 makes no sense for text files 
exit;
}

fputs($file, "<font color=\"#000000\">Name:</font> $name\n<font color=\"#000000\">Email:</font> <font color=\"#000000\"><u><A href=\"mailto:$email\">$email</A></u></font><br>\n<font color=\"#000000\">Posted:</font> $posted\n<font color=\"#000000\">Message:</font> $message\n\n");
fputs($file, $old);  // write back old data
// flock($file, LOCK_UN); // this would unlock the file after use
fclose($file);  // but closing it will unlock it anyway

// Send admin an email when new entry occurs
mailAdmin($name, $email, $message);
}

function mailAdmin($name, $email, $message) {
	$mailTo = "[e-mail]";
	$mailFrom = "From: <[e-mail]>";
	$mailSubject = "New Guestbook Entry";
	$mailBody = "A visitor to your site has left the following information in your guestbook:\n
	Name: $name
	Email: $email
	The visitor commented:
	------------------------------
	$message 
	------------------------------
	You can view the message at:
	http://www.mysite.com";
	mail($mailTo, $mailSubject, $mailBody, $mailFrom);
}

print "&result=okay";
exit;

?>

We were trying to open the file, read 21 characters in (this has to remain the same for readback in Flash), then copy all the current info, paste in the new entry, then paste in the old info afterwards.

I think we're nearly there but all this script seems to do is simply delete the old entry and write the new one.

Any help would be much appreciated as it's the last little hurdle on quite a big site I've been working on!

Many thanks!

Matt Faulkner

[TF_TheMoon]

I suspect you are getting a PHP warning message on your fread and fseek lines.

Try changing fread to file_get_contents( 'filename' );

EG

// Get old contents
$old = file_get_contents( 'test.txt');

// open file and place pointer to the start
$file  = fopen('test.txt', 'r+');
// Move the pointer to the 21st char
fseek($file, 21, 0);

// your error handling
if ( ! $file ) {
    print "&result=Fail";
    print "&errorMsg=" . urlencode("Could not open entry.txt file. Change CHMOD levels to 666.");   // 766 makes no sense for text files
    exit;
}

// Put new content first
fputs($file, "this is a test entry is id doing anything? I don't knowr\r\n\r\n");
fputs($file, $old);  // write back old data

fclose($file);  // but closing it will unlock it anyway

[stylefrog]

Hi there,

Thanks for the advice - I think it's nearly there.

The only issue is when we read in the old data as a complete string in the first place. Is there anyway we can ignore the first 21 characters in the text file then store the rest of that text file in the variable $old?

[TF_TheMoon]

Let me see if I have this right, you want to read the contents of the file into a variable $old, but ignoring the first 21 characters?

There are a few ways. the first thing that springs to mind is simply

$old = file_get_contents( 'test.txt'); // get the whole contents of the file
$old = substr( $old, 22); // substring from the 22nd character onward

But there are other ways

[stylefrog]

Hi there,

Thanks to your help we finally got the guestbook working a treat!

You are a star!