Writing a file transfer site with PHP

woodeye

At work, we're running an FTP program on one of our computers so that our customers can upload files to us and on occasion, download from us.

We're having three problems.
First, when a customer logs in, they are faced with a directory that contains every file that has been uploaded to the server. We can setup user directories, but we don't know who will be uploading to us, so there's no way for us to properly manage it.

Second, FTP programs are not extremely intuitive for non-computer types.

Third, When a customer uploads a file we need notification to go to the proper place. Like an e-mail sent to the salesperson, so they can write up a job.

So my question is...
I've done the research and I know enough about PHP to write a script for a log-in page and a registration page for new clients. I believe I've figured out how to upload files successfully. So here's the question. Are there any reasons I shouldn't use PHP to write a file transfer site like this? The files may be as much as 2-3 gigs in size. But I'm hosting the site locally, so I have control over the php.ini file, so I've set upload_max_filesize to 10000M (10gigs), and the post_max_size to 10500 (10.5gigs) and the max_execution_time to 43200 (12hrs). Will this work ok? It seems to work fine locally, but I haven't put it to the real test yet.

Thanks in advance for the advice. I appreciate it.
Brian

wilku

I haven't done such things, but I doubt if it's going to work well with such large files. There is no such thing as resume with uploadin through a form. Imagine having a temporary problem with the network after 12 hours of uploading.

You can still use ftp - when registering new client, php script can create an ftp directory and account for the user (setup ftp server to automatcally log to home directories of users). Php cron job running every say 15 minutes can scan all users directories for new files and notify whoever needs to know about them.

woodeye

Thanks for the reply.

I hadn't really thought about resuming a transfer. What you said would address most of the problems. The only thing that would still be a problem would be creating a nice user intuitive web page. We need to capture info from the client as they are uploading files.

Maybe I'll just put up a warning for large file transfers.

Thanks again.
Brian

troybtj

PHP has a default filesize limit of 2MB on upload that you would need to workaround.

You could have a page where they fill out information before uploading, and that script creates the ftp account and directory, then show their temporary ftp login info/path.

There are also Java ftp client applets available, a quick search shows them priced from $19 to $500. That is the only 'all web' way I can think of for your situation, while allowing resumed uploads.