ftp_site() doesn't want to change CHMOD on the folders - php

Question

I have a joomla page on which I want to install a few extensions. However due to the chmod permissions I am unable to upload and install the packages. Following the guide here I can see that in order for the plugins to be installed there are too many folders which permissions have to be changed.
For that I am creating a script which will iterate through each of the required folders and will change the permissions from 0775 to 0777.
<?php
// SET THE DESIRED CHMOD VALUE
if ($_GET['chmod']) {
$ftp_chmod = $_GET['chmod'];
}
else {
$ftp_chmod = "0755";
}
echo "chmod=" . $ftp_chmod . '<br />';
echo getcwd() . '<br />';
$currdir = getcwd(); // get current directory
// ESTABLISH AN FTP LOGIN SESSION
$ftp_server='example.com';
$ftp_user='username';
$ftp_pass='*****';
$conn_id = ftp_connect("$ftp_server");
if ( ftp_login($conn_id, $ftp_user, $ftp_pass) ) {
echo 'FTP CONNECTION IS SUCCESSFULL <br />';
}
else {
echo 'BAD CREDENTIALS';
exit();
}
// Define the folders for which the CHMODE will change the values
// There must be a leading space in front of the path in order for CHMOD to work
$folder_path = array(
' ' . $currdir . '/modules/',
' ' . $currdir . '/plugins/'
' ' . $currdir . '/tmp/',
' ' . $currdir . '/cache/'
);
echo '<br />';
foreach ( $folder_path as $key => $value )
{
$path = trim($value); // The leading space must be trimed fo is_dir() function to work
if ( is_dir($path) == true ) {
echo $path . ' -- ' . '<span style="color: #00B200">OK</span><br />';
echo 'CHMOD ' . $ftp_chmod . ' ' . $value . '<br />';
if (ftp_site($conn_id, 'CHMOD ' . $ftp_chmod . $value)) {
echo 'CHMOD ' . $ftp_chmod . ' IS <span style="color: #00B200">SUCCESSFULL</span><br /><br />';
}
else {
echo '<span style="color: crimson">CHMOD FAILED!</span><br /><br />';
}
}
else {
echo $path . ' -- ' . '<span style="color: crimson"><b>NOT EXIST</b></span><br />';
} // end if ( is_dir($path) == true ) else
} // end foreach ( $folder_path as $key => $value )
ftp_close($conn_id);
?>
Please note that the actual script is much larger due to the many folders that need to be changed. The folders shown in $folder_path = array() are just an example
When I execute the script on my server i get the folowind output:
chmod=0777
/var/www/example/data/www/example.com
FTP CONNECTION IS SUCCESSFULL
/var/www/example/data/www/example.com/modules/ -- OK
CHMOD 0777 /var/www/example/data/www/example.com/modules/
CHMOD FAILED!
/var/www/example/data/www/example.com/plugins/ -- OK
CHMOD 0777 /var/www/example/data/www/example.com/plugins/
CHMOD FAILED!
/var/www/example/data/www/example.com/tmp/ -- OK
CHMOD 0777 /var/www/example/data/www/example.com/tmp/
CHMOD FAILED!
/var/www/example/data/www/example.com/cache/ -- OK
CHMOD 0777 /var/www/example/data/www/example.com/cache/
CHMOD FAILED!
DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEA ON HOW TO CHANGE THE CHMOD VALUE ON SO MANY FOLDERS?
UPDATE:
I also have to mention that I have tried to change the CHMOD value on each folder individually via FTP client and it is successfull. The problem comes when i have to change them through the script. The same acc with root privilege access is used from the FTP client and the script to change the files!

Answer 1

I have found a solution to the problem. What I did was a small modification to the foreach part of the script which made it work. Basically I just subtracted the required number of characters from the path returned from the getcwd() and that solved my problem.
Here is the change that i did:
---- REST OF THE SCRIPT OMITED -----
foreach ( $folder_path as $key => $value )
{
$path = trim($value); // The leading space must be trimed fo is_dis() function to work
if ( is_dir($path) == true ) {
$value_short = substr($value, 19); // <------------- Subtruct the required number od chars in order to create a relative path
echo $path . ' -- ' . '<span style="color: #00B200">OK</span><br />';
echo 'CHMOD ' . $ftp_chmod . ' ' . $value_short . '<br />';
if (ftp_site($conn_id, "CHMOD $ftp_chmod $value_short")) { // <-------------- Use the relative path in the function
echo 'CHMOD ' . $ftp_chmod . ' IS <span style="color: #00B200">SUCCESSFULL</span><br /><br />';
}
else {
echo '<span style="color: crimson">CHMOD FAILED!</span><br /><br />';
}
}
else {
echo $path . ' -- ' . '<span style="color: crimson"><b>NOT EXIST</b></span><br />';
} // end if ( is_dir($path) == true ) else
} // end foreach ( $folder_path as $key => $value )
---- REST OF THE SCRIPT OMITED -----

Answer 2

Did you try just enabling Joomla's FTP layer before installing components/plugins etc?