Tue, 09 Jan 07
Posted in PHP at 4:59 pm by moore
I’m doing some work for a client using the MODx CMS. I will be writing more about that cool framework later, but I wanted to let the world know that xo.com hosting does not allow file upload via php scripts.
It doesn’t matter what your php.ini file says, the hosting environment doesn’t allow it. I was so astonished by an email telling me this that I called their customer service. Very politely, the fellow on the other end of the line repeated the prohibition. I asked “So, if I need file uploads, the only way to get them is to leave XO.” He was pretty uncomfortable, but said that was the case.
I guess westhost.com has spoiled me. I simply can’t believe that a modern hosting service wouldn’t allow that kind of fundamental functionality.
Am I off base here? Do most hosting providers prohibit this functionality? Did I just not talk to the correct folks at XO?
[tags]php, file upload, xo.com[/tags]
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Sat, 11 Nov 06
Posted in PHP, Programming at 10:38 am by moore
I recently wrote a PHP file upload application. Yawn, right? There’s a manual entry on this task, which tells you just how often folks need to do it.
Well, I threw in a few new tricks–they were new to me at least. Basically, instead of posting to a page in the typical way, I post to a 1px by 1px invisible iframe, which then generates some javacript:
<form action="/upload.php" enctype="multipart/form-data"
method="post" target="target_upload">
<iframe id="target_upload" name="target_upload"
style="border: 0pt none ; width: 1px; height: 1px">
———–
<script type="text/javascript">
if (parent && parent.uploadFinished) {
parent.uploadFinished(<?php echo $result;?>);
} </script>
The next question is how to communicate from the iframe, which is handling the processing, to the parent window, which is where the user interface is. The upload process parses the file and puts it in a database. If there are any errors, the parsing code ouptuts “0″, otherwise, it returns “1″. This value is passed to a javascript function which is written to the iframe. It looks something like the above, where the uploadFinished function basicly shows divs containing an appropriate message.
How is this superior from a regular page post? Not by very much. It’s not truly asynchronous–you still see the browser wheel spin. The only browser actions you can take while an upload is proceeding are those that open in a new window. That’s not much, but it’s more than a normal post allows you to do. In addition, this is relatively easy to do and you don’t have to deal with creating a new ‘successful upload page’.
[tags]PHP, file upload[/tags]
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