How to choose a directory

[mhamilton3]

I want to allow a user to choose a directory from a standard browse list and have that directory passed back so I can parse through the list of files to FTP them. Even better would be if I could pass the directory to a utility to FTP the whole directory. I am not a PHP guru so I'm not sure if this functionality is already build in. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[DRJ478]

There is a host of directory handling functions in PHP.
All the functions you require for the desired functionality are in there.
Read:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.dir.php

FTP is also included:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.ftp.php

You could also download the files using HTTP, just passing the correct header for encoding.

 

[mhamilton3]

Thank you, but I am still missing one piece. Is there a function somewhere that will let me put up a browse button and traverse the directory structure to choose a directory. I know <input type='file'> with HTML will allow me to traverse the tree to get a specific file, but I want to get a specific directory. I think my problem is this is client side - meaning Javascript / not PHP. (the PHP functions and FTP functions will come in handy though, thanks)

 

[DRJ478]

I am not clear about which way the transfer is supposed to happen; Client -> server or Server -> client

 

[mhamilton3]

The client will be uploading files to the server

 

[DRJ478]

You are right in your analysis - the problem is client side.
Since that is the case PHP can't help. The upload mechanism with the <input type=&quot;file&quot;> is to my best knowledge the only available source for your upload files.

FTP is not a solution, because your PHP server would need to contact the client's machine and it's unlikely people have an FTP server running - they might be behind a firewall anyway.

Also, you want to consider limiting the maximum size of upload files or your server could be maliciously plastered with junk.

 

[mhamilton3]

Thanks.