Updating HTML files using PHP from form input - php

Question

Basically, I want to update static HTML files with code snippets input by users from a standard form. I understand how updating the files work, I'm just unsure as to how I go about including the code input from the form to my php file, which is shown below.
<?php
if($handle = opendir()) {
$search = '</body>';
replace = <<< EOF
<!-- I want to populate this with form field input.-->
EOF;
while(false !== ($entry = readdir($handle))) {
if(is_dir($entry)) continue;
$content = file_get_contents($entry);
$content = str_replace($search, $replace . '</body>', $content);
file_put_contents($entry, $content);
}
}
echo 'done';
?>
Any help greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I would approach this a bit differently. I suggest having a template file aside from the one being modified. That way, you are always modifying a fresh copy instead of having to worry about what changed in the new version.
If your needs become more advanced beyond simply dropping in some markup, I might suggest using a DOM parser.
Finally, I'm sure you have a good reason for writing these static files... just remember the security implications of doing so. You're effectively letting someone do almost anything they want to your server.

Answer 2

Although I agreed it was in no way the best solution to the specific problem, for anyone that may find this useful in the future I used file_get and str_replace to achieve desired results. The code below will allow you to search a file for a specific term and replace with whatever you want based on form input.
<?php
//These are the variables the html file will post to the script.
$filename = $_POST['myFile'];;
$tofind = $_POST['myFind'];;
$toreplace = $_POST['myReplace'];;
$file = file_get_contents($filename);
$end = str_replace($tofind, $toreplace, $file);
$fp = fopen($filename, "w"); //Open the filename and set the mode to Write
if(fwrite($fp, $end)) ; //Write the New data to the opened file
fclose($fp); //Close the File
echo(" File name is $filename ... Finding $tofind .... Replacing with $toreplace ..... Done !");
?>

Answer 3

Though it's a horrible solution, mixed with your code this will do
$replace = array_key_exists('input',$_REQUEST) ? $_REQUEST['input'] : '';
//$replace = sanitize($replace); // there's so much bad with this string
//do the needfull
?>
<form method='GET' action='#'>
<input type='text' name='input' />
<input type='submit' />
</form>