PHP upload question

[alexjewell]

My girlfriend doesn't really like ftp clients, and I don't want to give her full control over the files NOT in her folder. So, I've devised a plan: I'm going to use the php ftp functions so she can just go to the page and upload, and it will go into her folder.
I wrote out a script, but I just have a few questions.
First off, here's the code:

include('inc.php');

$connect = ftp_connect($address) or die("Cannot connect to server");

$login_result = ftp_login($connect, $userid, $passwd) or die("Cannot login to server");

$file = $_REQUEST['file'];

ftp_put($connect, $file, $file, FTP_ASCII);
ftp_close($connect); 

Now, $address, $userid, and $passwd are in the inc.php file, and I think they're pretty self explanatory. index.php has the upload form on it, and it submits to this page. Now, first of all, how do we determine whether or not the file should be ASCII or BINARY? She'll be mostly uploading image files, so BINARY may be the way to go, but what if she uploads a .txt file or something? Then, somehow, we need to recognize this and switch it to ASCII. Is there a way to check that before uploading it?

Also, how do we specify the folder on the server to upload to? Or is it that this file is in that directory and so it knows to just put the file in that directory?

I haven't tested this code out yet, I wanted to get feedback first: will it even work in the first place?

I also plan on displaying the files in the directory for her, by doing this:

$directory_name = ftp_pwd($connect);
$filesArr = ftp_nlist($connect, $directory_name);
foreach ( $filesArr as $value) { echo $value."\n"; } 

Will that work?

And then one last thing:
What if a file is uploaded with the same name as a file already in the directory? Is there a way to detect this and add a "2", "3", "4", etc on the end of the filename to prevent errors? Or, even throw back a message saying "Hey, there's already a file with this name?"

[djr33]

I don't want to give her full control over the files NOT in her folder.

Did you tell her about this? Ha

Looks pretty good to me. I haven't used the ftp php functions, so not sure, though. Test it out

As for overriding, i'm sure there's a default way to check. If by chance there isn't, just compare it to the existing files before replacing. just check the size of the file by that name, for example. If an error (use @ to not display the error), then upload the file. If not, do a confirm, or change the name of one, or, just replace the old file...

[Twey]

Why are you using FTP for this? Surely, since the file has already been moved to a temporary directory, it's easier to simply use move_uploaded_file() and then chmod/chown it if necessary?

[alexjewell]

Twey, the file isn't already on the server. We're uploading it from HER computer to the server, into her folder. She just needs to upload images and maybe some misc text files, etc. My two questions were basically one, how do we determine ASCII or BINARY? Is there a way to find the file extension? I may just have her select ASCII or BINARY along with the form, but I'd have to explain the difference to her.

My other question was what if the file already exists? Djr, what exactly would that code look like? How do I check if that file already exists?

[nelis]

Well to check if the file exists you use this:

if(file_exists("$filename"))

For the extension you could use substr... example

$extension = substr($filename,-1,3);

That's assuming the extension is 3 chars

[Twey]

Twey, the file isn't already on the server.

But if you're handling uploads with PHP, it is. The PHP script isn't run until the file has been accepted and saved to a temporary directory.

[alexjewell]

Why do these functions exist, then?

Give me an example of how to do this with move_uploaded_file()?

[Twey]

$basedir = '/home/girlfriend/';

move_uploaded_file($_FILES['file']['tmp_name'], $basedir . $_FILES['file']['name']);

[blm126]

Why do these functions exist, then?

To transfer files to another server.

[djr33]

Right. FTP is for remote servers. There's no point in using it on your server if you've already got access