PHP create text file on server - php

Question

In my php application i want to create a error log in a text format so tried like this its working fine in my local machine
if(!$mail->Send())
{
echo "Message could not be sent. <p>";
echo "Mailer Error: " . $mail->ErrorInfo;
$stringData = "Error Info: ".$mail->ErrorInfo."\t\t";
$stringData .= "Email to reciepient \t Regnumber: ".$RegNo." \t Apllicant Name: ".$ApplicantName." Failed --- end ----";
$fp = fopen($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/lib/email_errorlog.txt","wb");
fwrite($fp,$stringData);
fclose($fp);
exit;
}
i have already seen discussion in PHP Create and Save a txt file to root directory but its not working for me. The problem is, there is no error is showing but text file is not creating. Need to set any permission on the server?

Answer 1

You have to make sure that:
the folder /lib exists in the document root
the webserver process has permission to write to that folder.
If you create the folder with your ftp account, the webserver process will have no access. You can set permissions to 777, but then everyone has access. Best would be to set permission to 770 and make the group of the folder the webserver group id.

Answer 2

You may check whether file (or rather parent directory) is writeable before trying to create file.
And according to php manual fopen():
Returns a file pointer resource on success, or FALSE on error.
So you could use this + $php_errormsg or get_last_error() to build correct file writing code:
$fp = fopen($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/lib/email_errorlog.txt","wb");
if( $fp === false){
// Notification about failed opening
echo "Cannot open file: " + $php_errormsg; // Not that wise in production
exit();
}
fwrite($fp,$stringData);
fclose($fp);
exit();
But with correct configuration all errors should be in error log.