OS and Software > Webmasters and Developers > PHP: file_exists fails to work or pebkac?

PHP: file_exists fails to work or pebkac?

<?php
    $default = '/content5/home'; //Whatever default page
    $error = '/content5/error404.php';
  
    $tempPage = isset($_GET['page']) ? $_GET['page'] : $default;
    echo $tempPage . '<br>';
    echo '$tempPage does not contain $default... $tempPage = ' . $tempPage . '<br>';
    $tempPage = '/content5/' . basename($tempPage) . '.php';
  
    if (!file_exists($tempPage))    { //Checks if the file doesn't exist
        echo 'Load failed <br>' . $tempPage . '<br>';
        echo 'File does not exist... ';
        print_r(file_exists($tempPage) . '<br>');
        $page = $error; //If it doesn't, it'll load the error page
    }
    else{
        $page = $tempPage; //Assigns page from $tempPage to $page
    }
        require($page); //And now it's on your page!
?>
 

<?php
    $menu = array(); 
    require('/section/nav.php');
  
    //$title='Home'; Default title 
  
    function generateMenu()    { 
        global $menu,$default,$title; 
        $error = '<span class="error"><p>There has been an error</p></span>';
        $default = 'Home';
        echo '    <ul>';
        $p = isset($_GET['page']) ? $_GET['page'] : $default;
        foreach ($menu as $link=>$item)    {
            $newLink = $link;
            $class = '';
            if(filter_var($newLink, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING)){
                if ($link==$p)    {
                $class='class="selected"';
                }
            }
            else{
                die($error);
            }
            
            echo '<li '.$class.'><a href="?page='.$link.'">'.$item.'</a></li>';
        }
        echo '</ul>';
    }
?>
 

Try using the full path for $tempPage:

$tempPage = 'C:/wamp/www/content5/' . basename($tempPage) . '.php';
 

reply to Ashke
I tweaked around in validateURL.php and found out that the error lies in the last if-else function.

<?php
    $default = '/content/home'; //Default Page
    $error = '/content/error404.php';
  
    $tempPage = isset($_GET['page']) ? $_GET['page'] : $default;
    print_r('isset( $_GET[\'page\'] ) = ' . isset($_GET['page']) . '<br>');
    echo '$tempPage = isset($_GET[\'page\'] ? $_GET[\'page\'] : $default === ' . $tempPage . '<br>';
  
    //This if / else functions checks to see if $tempPage is the same as $default or 'home'
    //Then it will process the instructed codes
    if ($tempPage == $default){ // Checks to see if $tempPage contains the same as $defualt or home
        echo '$tempPage is the same as $default... ' . $tempPage . '<br>';
        echo 'Appending .php to $tempPage <br>';
        $tempPage .= '.php'; // appends '.php' to $tempPage
        echo $tempPage . '<br>';
    }
    
    else if($tempPage == 'home'){
        $tempPage = '/content/' . $tempPage . '.php';
    }
    
    else {
        echo '$tempPage is not the same as $default... ' . $tempPage . '<br>';
        echo 'attaching proper directory path and extension to $tempPage <br>';
        $tempPage = '/content/' . basename($tempPage) . '.php';
        echo $tempPage . '<br>';
    }
 
    //require($tempPage); //For when the codes below fail
 
    if (!file_exists($tempPage))    { //Checks if the file doesn't exist
        echo 'File does not exist...<br>';
        echo 'Load failed <br>';
        echo $tempPage . '<br>';
        $page = $error; //If it doesn't, it'll load the error page
    }
    
    else{
        $page = $tempPage; //Assigns page from $tempPage to $page
    }
    
    require($page); //And now it's on your page!
?>
 

reply to MVS
I would like to avoid using the absolute file path because I plan on uploading the pages onto the site using linux server. As far as my understanding goes, Linux does not have letter-based directories (A:, C:, D:, etc...).
--
-Ashke

Yes, that's true. In that case, you could use:

$tempPage = dirname(__FILE__) . '/content/' . basename($tempPage) . '.php';
 

reply to MVS
Using the latest validateURL.php file posted above.

isset( $_GET['page'] ) = 1
$tempPage = isset($_GET['page'] ? $_GET['page'] : $default === home
File does not exist...
Load failed
/content/home.php

reply to Ashke
Oh, I see. Then, try this instead:

$tempPage = dirname(__FILE__) . '../content/' . basename($tempPage) . '.php';
 

Instead of:

$tempPage = dirname(__FILE__) . '../content/' . basename($tempPage) . '.php';
 

$tempPage = dirname(__FILE__) . '/../content/' . basename($tempPage) . '.php';
 

Oops! Thanks for catching that. It's been a long day...

reply to Steve
And also to MVS ,

I tried using the codes below...

$tempPage = dirname(__FILE__) . '../content/' . basename($tempPage) . '.php';
 

$tempPage = dirname(__FILE__) . '/../content/' . basename($tempPage) . '.php';
 

reply to Ashke
*Faceslams onto desk repeatedly*

I figured out the problem... See the variable declarations in Lines 1 and 2 on top of the validateURL.php code block? For some reason, I can't include the initial slash when declaring the location.

When I removed them, it worked just fine...

$default = 'content5/home';
$error = 'content5/error404.php';
 

reply to Steve

reply to Ashke
With the '/' at the beginning, PHP thinks that you're specifying the full path to a file or directory, since that's what Unix-style file paths look like (for example, "/var/www/html/index.html"). Without the '/', it knows that you're referring to a relative path.

That's why I was suggesting to try altering the $tempPage variable, but it looks like it needed to be taken one step further with the other variables as well.

That's because, in Linux and other Unix-like operating systems, '/' refers to the root directory. So, if you tell PHP to open '/files/index.html', it will look in the root directory for a directory named 'files', and it will look in there for a file called 'index.html'. But if you tell it to open 'files/index.html', it will look in the current directory (and a few other configurable places) instead.

Good point....

So for Windows-based servers, it will look in '/My Computer/' if I used '/' in the beginning of the string?
--
-Ashke

My guess is that it would refer to the root directory of the current drive (for example, "C:\"), but I don't have a Windows server available to test that.

reply to Ashke
There's no file system directory called "My Computer", so, probably not. "My Computer" is an entity in the shell namespace only. So unless your server happens to be dealing with the shell namespace, I'd suppose you don't see "My Computer".

Overall philosophy difference here: Unix tends to put non-file-system objects into the file system namespace -- like /dev/foo for example. Windows tends to put file system objects into some other namespace -- like the assorted x:\$Recycle.Bin directories show up in Explorer as "Recycle Bin", and only one of them. Not everything you see in Windows Explorer is a file.