[RESOLVED] Ignoring Blank File Upload Field

ME1

Hi Please can someone help me

I have an HTML form with a file upload field on it, which works fine with a valid file.

If an invalid file is entered, I have validation code which flags an error, etc., only I don't want it to flag an error if the field is left blank (meaning the user chose not to upload a file).

The problem is, I can't find a way of distinguishing if the user input a blank string, or some other string which isn't a file, because $FILES is the same in both cases - $FILES['fieldname']['error'] is 4, $_FILES['fieldname']['size'] is 0 and name, tmp_name are blank.

Any ideas?
Thanks

bpat1434

well, if someone puts a space, it's trimmed anyway so it counts as a blank field since there's nothing to upload. So you' d just need to check the size of it and if it's 0 plus the name is [man]empty/man then you're good to go on without an uploaded file.

ME1

Hi Thanks for replying

Sorry I don't understand what you mean by [man]empty/man.

What I mean is that if the user leaves the field blank, then no error should be flagged because the user intends not to upload a file, but if the user inputs an incorrect file path, then an error should be flagged to tell the user that the path is invalid.

The problem I have is that I can't distinguish between the two cases above. In both cases size is 0 as no file is uploaded.

bpat1434

There really isn't any way around that as far as I know. But using [man]empty/man you can check for an empty string. Now, if no file is uploaded (because of a bad path) then the $_FILES array will be empty. So a bad path is just like not uploading a file.

One way you could do it is using the $FILES['userfile']['error'] number and if $FILES is set, then there must have been a file to be uploaded. If the error number is 0, everything is fine, if it's 4, no file was uploaded.
Note: Error Messages Explained

PHP can't tell you if the client has a bad path. One way to prevent this is to use the <input type="file"> field rather than having them type the path. To check to see if hte file is there, you'd probably need to use Javascript.

ME1

OK thanks for your help - I guess I'll use Javascript.

In any case maybe it's unnecessary because as you say, it's not likely they'd input an incorrect file if I was using the HTML 'file' input type (given that there's no need to type the path in)

btw I'm not sure how to mark a post as resolved as the link in your footer was broken

bpat1434

Yeah, workin on gettin things back on my site again. I'll mark it resolved for you.