how do i copy a file on button click? - php

Question

I want to build a one page utility/prototype that will do the following:
provide the admin user with a drop down box. when they select an option and then click on a submit button, i want to be able to COPY a file from /var/www/mysite/abc.txt to /var/www/mysecondsite/abc.txt
I've written the php / html to display the form, but can I use jquery/ajax to call a function on the same php file?
Here's my code:
<?php
$listofcountries='';
echo "<h2>Select a site</h2>";
echo " <script src='http://myserver/myapp/assets/js/jquery-1.8.1.min.js'></script>";
if ($handle = opendir(dirname(__FILE__)."/secrets/")) {
echo "<input type=text list=site >";
echo "<datalist id=site >";
/* This is the correct way to loop over the directory. */
while (false !== ($entry = readdir($handle))) {
//ignore temporary files, and directories.
if ( (strpos($entry, "~") === false) && !(trim($entry)==".") && !( $entry=="..") ){
//echo "$entry\n<BR>";
$country=getCountryName($entry);
echo "<option>".$country;
}
}
}
closedir($handle);
echo "</datalist>";
echo "<input type=submit id='changert'><BR>";
echo "<script>";
echo "$(document).ready(function(){";
echo " $('#changert').live('click', function() {";
echo " alert('in the changert function'); ";
echo " });";
echo " }); "; //end document ready
echo "</script> "; //end javascript
function getCountryName($fileame)
{
$pattern = '/([a-z]*).([a-z]*).([a-z]*).php/i';
preg_match_all($pattern, $fileame, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER);
foreach ($matches as $match) {
return $match[1];
}
}
in the real version, this solution will be part of a codeigniter solution... so i'll have a proper MVC.
But for now, I'd like to be able to contain all the logic in one file.
Can you tell me how i can do this?

Answer 1

jQuery is just JavaScript so it's all on the client. Any server-side file copying would still need to be handled by your PHP. Simplest solution is just to make an AJAX request on button click which hits your PHP API and passes a token or something so non-session users aren't copying files maliciously.
$('#myButton').on('click', function(e) {
$.ajax({
url : '/copyFile.php',
data : {
fileName : $('#mySelectMenu').val(),
token : someTokenYourPHPInjectedIntoYourJS
},
type : 'POST',
success : function (data) {
// yay
}
});
});

Answer 2

You should check PHP Documentation at: http://mx2.php.net/manual/en/function.copy.php
There's an exaple to copy a file.
<?php
$file = 'example.txt';
$newfile = 'example.txt.bak';
if (!copy($file, $newfile)) {
echo "failed to copy $file...\n";
}
?>
Remember this directories must exists and be visible to each other (inside the same web server)

Answer 3

Add an Ajax call on your user interface,
$.ajax({
url: 'copy.php',
success: function(data) {
if(data == 'true'){
alert('The file has been copied');
}
}
});
Create a second php file to handle the file copy on request
/* copy.php */
<?php
$result = copy('/dir1', '/dir2');
echo $result?'true':'false';
Of curse, this is over-simplified, you have to do some error-handling input-checking and security improvements, but I just wanted to illustrate the way to go.