How do you rename a textfile with a datetime stamp in php? - php

Question

I'm new to php and programming in general, so forgive my ignorance on this one. I am trying to rename a textfile I created with a datetime stamp, and can't seem to get it right. I am writing info to a textfile after someone submits data, and that works, but I need to make every text file unique, so I need a unique naming convention. I even tried using the first name of the entry, but I can't get that to work either. Here's what I have so far:
<?php
$FirstName = $_POST["fname"].PHP_EOL;
$LastName = $_POST["lname"].PHP_EOL;
$Address = $_POST["address"].PHP_EOL;
$City = $_POST["city"].PHP_EOL;
$State = $_POST["st"].PHP_EOL;
$Zip = $_POST["zip"].PHP_EOL;
$Tel = $_POST["tel"].PHP_EOL;
$AddressFile = "Address_Entries.txt";
$ourFileHandle = fopen($AddressFile, "a") or die("can't open file");
$date = new DateTime();
echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:sP') . "\n";
fwrite($ourFileHandle, $FirstName);
fwrite($ourFileHandle, $LastName);
fwrite($ourFileHandle, $Address);
fwrite($ourFileHandle, $City);
fwrite($ourFileHandle, $State);
fwrite($ourFileHandle, $Zip);
fwrite($ourFileHandle, $Tel);
fclose($ourFileHandle);
echo "<p>File has been writtten to successfully!</p>";
rename("C:/xampp/security/htdocs/testes/Address_Entries.txt", $FirstName);
?>
Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
A

Answer 1

If you need a unique ID to name files with, try uniqid()

Answer 2

In windows you must use correct path:
rename("C:\\xampp\\security\\htdocs\\testes\\Address_Entries.txt", "C:\\xampp\\security\\htdocs\\testes\\$FirstName.txt");

Answer 3

This will rename the file using the timestamp. But a unique naming convention, this has a great chance to be unique, but is NOT unique. If someone was to post at the very same time... with the same first name... you'll have duplicate files.
Now is it a big chance? No.
<?php
$file = '/tmp/this-is-temp-file.txt';
$firstName = 'BeepBeep';
$timestamp = time();
rename($file, '/path/to/new/file/'.$firstName.'-'.$timestamp.'.txt');
?>
Possibly try to incorporate a uniqid() function. I don't think it is unique again as it uses time() (I think)... but may be better off padding it with a unique counter (like an ID from the database)
This assumes:
a) You have access to the FULL PATH
b) PHP has access to the file! You might be able to WRITE the file, but maybe not enough permissions to move, delete, rename, edit..