[RESOLVED] Get Newest TXT File

[fwhilton]

Hi,
I am using PHP and Flash together.

When I click a button in Flash, I call a PHP file to read in a TXT file that I have saved.

However, because of caching, it always returns the orginal data.

So, how can I put a time stamp on the text file within the PHP file so it gets the most recent txt file?

Here is what I got (the time stamp is what I added) not sure that it is right. Doesn't work.

Added... ?=time()?

<?php
$filename = 'adminzones.txt?=time()?';

// open the file for reading
if (!$handle = fopen($filename, 'r')) {
	 echo "&txtstr=Cannot open file&";
	 exit;
}

$message = file_get_contents ($filename);
echo "&txtstr=$message&";
?>

Thanks

[Weedpacket]

$filename = 'adminzones.txt?='.time(); 

[fwhilton]

hmmm...

Now I can't open the file. Here is my error log...

[28-Sep-2008 10:08:46] PHP Warning: fopen(adminzones.txt?=1222618126) [<a href='function.fopen'>function.fopen</a>]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /public_html/technipixel/test/adban/adminreadzones.php on line 6

Thanks
🙂

[bpat1434]

Means that there is no file with the name "adminzones.txt?time=1222618126". If you're writing content to the text file, just use the [man]filemtime/man function to get the last time the file was modified.

Or, create text files with the name being the timestamp, like: 1222618126.txt

Then you can just grab a listing of *.txt files with [man]glob/man, order them by filename, and voila! You can get the most recent (and the least recent) relatively easy.

[fwhilton]

Well.... there is a file named "adminzones.txt"

This worked without the time syntax.
I was able to read the file before I was told to tack on "?='.time()"

I did try just the "filemtime()" and that didn't work. That returns a number just like the ".time()" does.

The adminzones.txt is loaded iinto Flash.
When I save and try to reload it only uses the cached file data.

🙂

[bpat1434]

Are you reloading it via Flash or PHP?

[fwhilton]

Flash is calling the PHP.

🙂

[HalfaBee]

which file is flash calling?

[bpat1434]

Okay, I think I know what the person that told you to add the ?=time thing meant.

Revert your PHP back to the original stuff. We'll start from the beginning. So your flash is now calling somescript.php to get the text contents. You might want to rather call somescript.php?time=1 that way the response isn't from the cache. The ?time= would mean that what you're getting is variable, so it shouldn't use the cache.

Now, your PHP file doesn't need to do anything with that $_GET['time'] variable. Inside your php, you just need to make sure you open the file, read the contents, and output the response you need.

One thing you could do is send the Cache-Control header along with the "Pragma: no-cache" (for HTTP/1.0 compatibility).

So your response might look something like:

<?php

// Get the file contents...
$contents = file_get_contents('somefile.txt');
if($contents === false)
    $contents = 'Cannot open file';

header('Pragma: no-cache');
header('Cache-Control: no-cache');

echo '&textstr='.$contents;

Hope that helps.

[fwhilton]

I already figured it out.

It was pretty much the way you suggested too.

In flash, I put "readzones.php?="+random(9999),0);"

So, flash is sending a random number as a var with the php file.

So... same thing. I could very well do ?time=1 too.

Thanks for your help!

🙂