fopen function not working

ddrfreek

Ok, so I have textarea that posts data to this processor file. Everything seems to work fine except for the fopen

<?php

$update = $POST['style'];
$uploaddir = $SESSION['username'];
echo $update;

$handle = fopen($uploaddir."/"."dhcstylesheet.css", "w");
if(!$handle)
{die("Error opening file for writing");}
fwrite($handle, $update);
fclose($handle);
echo "Your stylesheet has been successfully edited!";

It just keeps returning the die error. The echo $update displays the properly edited text from the post, but for some reason the fopen doesn't work. Any ideas?

MarkR

There are several things you need to do:

Enable error_reporting(E_ALL) and either log or display errors. Ideally install an error handler which will bomb out on the slightest problem, allowing you to debug it.
Be more consistent in the way you index associative arrays, e.g.:
```
$update = $_POST['style'];
$uploaddir = $_SESSION['username'];
```

Otherwise you'll just confuse yourself.

You should of course check that $_SESSION['username'] is actually defined and contains what you expect.

Be very careful that you don't allow uploading etc, to arbitrary directories on the server.

Mark

ddrfreek

Right, I didn't even notice that. Thanks. I also added an echo $uploaddir just to make sure that it's the right directory (and it is).

ddrfreek

Alright, now I'm thinking the problem might be with my permissions on the file. I changed the file's permission to 777, but it's still not working. Does only the file I'm writing to need to be changed?

bradgrafelman

I would think so... did you turn on display_errors and set error_reporting to E_ALL as Mark suggested? If the fopen() is failing, PHP should be generating a notice/warning/error.