Upload processing

[sfhazel]

I am having trouble moving the temp file after an upload to a folder other than the one that the upload.php file resides. Here is a quick snippet of my code:

	$upload_dir = @ $HTTP_POST_VARS["upload_dir"];

if( isset($upload_dir) ){
	//my problem is that when I use ../ to go up a folder, it
	// seems to make the file disappear when I try to move it.
	// Also note that my code returns the success statement
	// and not an error.
	$target_path = "../albums/".$upload_dir."/";
	$target_path .= basename($_FILES['upload_file']['name']);

	if( move_uploaded_file($_FILES['upload_file']['tmp_name'], $target_path) ){
	    $success = "<b>".basename($_FILES['upload_file']['name']).
	    	"</b> has been added to the <b>".$upload_dir."</b> album";
	}else{
	    $error = "Error: file upload unsuccessful";
	}
}else{
	$error = "Error: directory not specified";
}

I'm sure that I'm refering to the target directory incorrectly in some manner. Could anyone point out my flaw please?

[sfhazel]

UPDATE

I found out that my webhost's server has both a www and a public_html directory. I've been uploading my site to the public_html directory. I noticed that the www directory has all of the same files as the public_html one. I'm assuming everything gets copied over automatically. Anyway, when I execute the above code, the image is copied to the www directory instead of the public_html one. So, when browsing my site, I do not see the uploaded image because it doesn't exist in the public_html direcotry.

The file still gets moved to the WWW folder even if I go through the root directory: /home/username/public_html/foldername

Hope that makes sense. How do I fix this?