Tag Archives: Form

Automatically Upload Images with PHP Directly from the URI

micro tutorial, PHP, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It is a simple task to upload images on the server with PHP using a simple web form. Than everything’s in the $_FILES array and after submitting the form the file’s on the server. By simply move_uploaded_file you can change its location on the server to the desired folder.

However is there a way to “upload” files without using a web form, but only by telling the PHP script where to find the image. First and most important the image should be web visible and accessible by HTTP.

The solution is quite easy – you can grab the file using file_get_contents, and than put it on the desired server folder with file_put_contents. Here’s some source:

$image = file_get_contents('http://www.example.com/image.jpg');
file_put_contents('/var/www/my.jpg', $image);

Extending the Case

You can go even further by downloading any kind of files with the same approach. What will be the case for an mp4 video is shown in the next example:

$video = file_get_contents('http://www.example.com/video.mp4');
file_put_contents('/var/www/my.mp4', $video);

Usage

This can be quite useful when trying to automate an remote upload process. In this case when somebody uploads an image on his site, you can duplicate this file on your server! However don’t forget the copyrights!

HTTP POST with PHP without cURL

micro tutorial, PHP, , , , , , , , ,

Awesome PHP

a great php idea!
It’s strange how powerful PHP can be. There’s a legend that cURL is the only way to perform a HTTP POST with PHP, but that isn’t the truth. An extremely useful script is by using stream_context_create:

$optional_headers = null;
$params = array('http' => array(
                'method' => 'POST',
                'content' => http_build_query(array('name' => 'my-name'))));
 
if ($optional_headers !== null) {
    $params['http']['header'] = $optional_headers;
}
 
$ctx = stream_context_create($params);
$fp = @fopen('http://example.com/post.php', 'rb', false, $ctx);

Well this is only a snippet. You can change a lot this code and perform any request, but here’s a small start up. However note that this will do the same as while posting to example.com/post.php via web form!

Send Html Mails with Zend_Mail

micro tutorial, PHP, zend framework, , , , , , , ,

Zend_Mail
Typically you’d never like to send a non-html formatted mail from your web system. It’s ugly and it’s difficult to read. Instead of sending pure text, you’d like to add some images and styles. The way you can do it with Zend_Mail is simple enough. Replace the setBody method with setBodyHtml. Isn’t that natural?

// before
$mail = new Zend_Mail('utf-8');
$mail->setFrom('sender@example.com', 'Sender Name');
$mail->setBody('message in Html');
$mail->addTo('recipient@example.com', 'Recepient Name');
$mail->setSubject('Subject');
$mail->send();
// after
$mail = new Zend_Mail('utf-8');
$mail->setFrom('sender@example.com', 'Sender Name');
$mail->setBodyHtml('message in Html');
$mail->addTo('recipient@example.com', 'Recepient Name');
$mail->setSubject('Subject');
$mail->send();

document.forms[‘myform’].submit() is not a function?

micro tutorial, web development, , , ,

.submit()

You want to submit the form by clicking on a link or some other element on the page and this is a simple task. You know that by simply adding something like document.forms[‘the-form-name’].submit() this will work.

<form method="post" name="myform">
    <input type="text" name="user" />
    <a href="#" onclick="document.forms['myform'].submit();return false">Submit</a>
</form>

However you’d like to submit the form not only by clicking on that particular element, but also by clicking on the Enter while the focus is on a input field, and this wont work! That’s because you don’t have a input type=”submit”.

OK, first thing is to add a hidden input type=”submit” – than by clicking both on the Enter keyboard button and on the link with the onclick=”document.blah.blah.blah” will submit the form.

<form method="post" name="myform">
    <input type="text" name="user" />
    <input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit" style="display:hidden" />
    <a href="#" onclick="document.forms['myform'].submit();return false">Submit</a>
</form>

But this is not true!

Than you’ll receive the following message:

document.forms['myform'].submit() is not a function

Why? This isn’t working, but ever line seems to be OK. The answer is – don’t name the input type=”submit” with the trivial – “submit”. Just give it another name:

<form method="post" name="myform">
    <input type="text" name="user" />
    <input type="submit" name="something" value="something" style="display:hidden" />
    <a href="#" onclick="document.forms['myform'].submit();return false">Submit</a>
</form>

Send Authenticated POST Request with Zend_Http_Client

micro tutorial, PHP, snippets, web development, zend framework, , , , , , , , , ,


There is an easy way to send requests with Zend_Http_Client either in GET and POST. Actually you can request not only with GET and POST methods, but with any other http request method.

$httpClient = new Zend_Http_Client('http://....');
// request via post
$response = $httpClient->request(Zend_Http_Client::POST);
// or get
$response = $httpClient->request(Zend_Http_Client::GET);

However the interesting and useful thing is that you can perform authenticated requests:

$httpClient = new Zend_Http_Client('http://username:password@example.com');
// or define it later
$httpClient = new Zend_Http_Client('http://example.com');
$httpClient->setAuth('username', 'password');

That’s an opportunity to send/receive authenticated POST requests.

$httpClient = new Zend_Http_Client('http://username:password@example.com');
// now post
$httpClient->request(Zend_Http_Client::POST);