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File Handling with PHP

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Directory and File Structures

6:18 with Alena Holligan

Everything on a computer is stored in some sort of file. Understanding how to read and manipulate those files will provide a very powerful tool for controlling the system.

Download: File Handling Cheat Sheet

Directory Functions

Here is a list of directory functions supported in PHP (* marks functions we've used in this course):

  • chdir — Change directory
  • chroot — Change the root directory
  • closedir — Close directory handle
  • dir — Return an instance of the Directory class
  • getcwd — Gets the current working directory
  • opendir — Open directory handle
  • readdir — Read entry from directory handle
  • rewinddir — Rewind directory handle
  • * scandir — List files and directories inside the specified path *

For other related functions such as dirname(), is_dir(), mkdir(), and rmdir(), see the File System Functions.

Secondary Example Using opendir()

Open a directory and read the files one by one.

if ($dh = opendir('data')) {
    echo '<ul>';
    while (($file = readdir($dh)) !== false) {
        if (substr($file, 0, 1) != '.') {
            echo '<li>';
            echo $file;
            echo '</li>';
        }
    }
    echo '</ul>';
    closedir($dh);
}

PERMISSIONS

If you are having problems with accessing files, a good place to start looking is at the file permissions. To learn more about file permissions, check out our Console Foundations course, specifically the video on File Permissions

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    [MUSIC] 0:00
    Welcome to Your Computer. 0:04
    I'm Alena and 0:06
    I'll be your guide as we learn to communicate with your file system. 0:07
    Everything on a computer is stored in some sort of file. 0:11
    Understanding how to read and 0:15
    manipulate those files will provide a very powerful tool for controlling the system. 0:16
    While this may sound like an all powerful and lofty goal, and it can be. 0:22
    File handling is also an important part of any application. 0:28
    You often need to open and process a file for 0:32
    different tasks such as reading and config. 0:35
    You may also need to write files such as exporting order details. 0:38
    In this course, we'll start by exploring the file structure itself 0:43
    to read what files are where. 0:47
    Then we'll move on to different ways of reading and writing those files. 0:50
    In the next section, we'll explore some common data types and 0:54
    how to parse that data into something we can use in PHP. 0:58
    One of the biggest issues you'll run into when trying to read or 1:02
    write files is permissions. 1:06
    If you're having any access issues reading or 1:08
    writing files, check the notes associated with this video. 1:11
    Are you ready to take control? 1:15
    Then let's get started. 1:17
    Open the workspace attached to this video. 1:20
    At this point, you should be familiar with browsing files here on the left, 1:22
    opening and closing folders and seeing what's there. 1:27
    What you're seeing is actually a script that's reading the files and 1:30
    displaying them as it's been instructed. 1:33
    So let's read and display these files ourselves using PHP. 1:36
    Create a New File named index.php. 1:40
    We'll start with the function name scandir. 1:49
    This scans the directory and returns an array of files and 1:54
    directories from the given directory. 1:57
    I want to look in the data directory, so we'll pass data for the directory. 2:01
    I'll put the results in a variable named $files. 2:06
    Let's display these files as a list by looping through the array. 2:09
    For each files as file. 2:29
    [SOUND] And 2:38
    then,we echo file. 2:41
    Let's preview this in the browser to see what we have so far. 2:47
    The single dot represents the current directory and 2:53
    the double dots represent the path to go up one level. 2:56
    DS_Store is a hidden mac file. 3:00
    We don't want to show any of these or 3:04
    any other hidden files that start with the dot. 3:07
    So let's check the first character. 3:09
    If the first character is not a dot, then we'll display the file. 3:22
    Let's preview this in the browser again. 3:32
    Great, only our folders are displayed but I want this to be recursive and 3:39
    scan any subdirectories as well. 3:44
    Let's go back to work spaces and turn this into a function. 3:47
    ReadFolderFiles and we'll pass the directory. 3:57
    Now, we can call this function. 4:20
    And parse data. 4:28
    Now, we're ready to do something different, 4:31
    if the file is a directory or not. 4:33
    If is_dir, 4:40
    the directory plus the file. 4:43
    Then we're going to echo the file, and call our function again. 4:55
    We'll pass dir plus the file. 5:07
    If it's not a directory, we want to add a link to that file. 5:14
    Let's jump back to the browser and see what we have now. 5:54
    Great, just what we want, a list of all the folders and 6:02
    sub-files in the data directory. 6:05
    We could style these however we wanted and 6:08
    apply any action we want to control the behavior of the display. 6:10
    But, let's get into actually reading those files next. 6:15

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