Re: [PHP] Query regarding temporarily-uploaded files

On 7/10/2013 3:37 PM, Ajay Garg wrote:
> Thanks Jim and Anthony.
>
> Jim,
> You are right, your solution is doable.
>
> But one thing I am a little skeptical about, is what would be the
> percentage of the people willing to suggest a new name "immediately",
> versus the percentage of people who would like to cancel the current
> upload, and come back "later" after walking and coming up with a new name.
>
> Anyhow, let me sleep over it :)
>
>
> Anthony,
> your solution is really a special case of Jim's solution :)
>
>
>
> Thanks guys for the quick replies; I am obliged, really.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 11, 2013 at 12:59 AM, Anthony Wlodarski <[email protected]>wrote:
>
>> Is there anything that would prevent you from somehow uniquely knowing who
>> the user is uploading the file. For example you mentioned "client'.  If
>> you know
>> who the client is you can append that to the filename or prepend it, for
>> the
>> destination string (second parameter to the function call).  That way it
>> is unique
>> to that client.
>>
>> -Anthony
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 2:15 PM, Ajay Garg <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks Jim and Matijn for the quick replies.
>>> I will try to have a workaround.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 11:09 PM, Matijn Woudt <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 7:21 PM, Ajay Garg <[email protected]>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi all.
>>>>>
>>>>> I have a requirement, wherein I need to allow vanilla uploads of files
>>>>> to a HTTPD server.
>>>>>
>>>>> Any client can upload any number of files (one at a time).
>>>>> Also, there is just one directory, where the files get stored
>>>>> "finally" (that is, after being copied from the temporary location,
>>>>> via "move_uploaded_file")
>>>>>
>>>>> Also, I have been able to get the simple file uploading running via
>>>>> PHP, by picking up one of the numerous "Hello World" examples
>>>>> available :)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Now, I am facing the following use-case ::
>>>>>
>>>>> 1)
>>>>> User 1 starts uploading a large file, say "big_file.avi".
>>>>>
>>>>> 2)
>>>>> Meanwhile, user 2 also starts uploading a (different) file, but with
>>>>> the same name "big_file.avi".
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> In an ideal scenario, user 2 should be prompted with a message, that a
>>>>> file of the same name is already being uploaded by someone else
>>>>> somewhere.
>>>>> Is there a way to do this?
>>>>>
>>>>> ( Note that, had the user 2 started uploading AFTER user 1 had
>>>>> finished with the upload, we could probably modify the PHP-script at
>>>>> the sever-side, to let user-2 know that a file of the same name
>>>>> already exits. But I am failing to find a solution, when the user 2
>>>>> starts the upload WHILE the large file of user 1 is in the process of
>>>>> completing uploading).
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Any way the issue may be solved?
>>>>>
>>>>> I will be grateful for any pointers :)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>> Ajay
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> This is not possible with PHP, PHP will not know about the file until
>>> the
>>>> upload is completed. You can use HTML5 or flash(not recommended) for an
>>>> alternative way of uploading, and then you can check the file name in
>>>> advance.
>>>>
>>>> - Matijn
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Regards,
>>> Ajay
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Anthony W.
>> [email protected]
>>
>
>
>
That's why I said you would have to do a cleanup periodically.  People 
who walk away could lose their session perhaps and the page wiht the 
hidden temp name buried in it, so they would have to do their upload 
from the beginning again.  If they didn't lose their session and 
therefore that screen, then they could still respond and things would 
flow smoothly.

so - who is scanning these files for viruses and what not?  It's one 
thing to host them but if you are going to let users view them on their 
clients you could be spreading things.