help automatically creating new user subdirectory

[verbatim1]

i was wondering if someone could assist me in creating the functionality where a person can sign into a website as a new user and the website automatically create a subdirectory named whatever they chose as a username?

 

[scorpion4377]

mkdir('.' . $username, 0777);

 

[scorpion4377]

Oops. Should be:

mkdir('./' . $username . '/', 0777);

Sorry about that.

 

[Olavxxx]

Remember to check if the directory already excists!

is_dir -- Tells whether the filename is a directory

Then you wrap the function given above, by the helpfull scorpion inside this function, like so:

// Define directory
$dir = "./{$username}/";

// make directory
if (!(is_dir($dir))) {
    mkdir($dir, 0777);
  }

There is however one thing you have to have in mind, What if the usernames contain characters that are "not good"?
By "not good", I mean like:
`, æ, ø, å, etc.etc.

You either have to have a strict validation on usernames or you have to do some conversion before creating directories.
eg. You could replace spaces with _, etc.

htmlentities(), urlencode() and others might be usefull

If you want the "easy way out", you can make the directories based on the user_id, as I guess you have a unique user_id in a mysql table. This way is the best in my mind, as if one user deletes his account, another user can not "steal" his / her directory! Also it's always unique.

I also think that a CHMOD of 0755 might be better.

Olav Alexander Mjelde

http://www.volvo-power.net

Admin & Webmaster

 

[verbatim1]

does the folder that this script is in have to have a certain chmod setting?

i currently have it in a folder with 0755 settings.

and which of the three [if any] would be the correct syntax:

1
<?php
mkdir("/home/xxx/mainwebsite_html ./mkdirtesst/", 0700);
?>



2
<?php
mkdir("[URL unfurl="true"]http://"[/URL] . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] ./{$username}/", 0700);
?>

3
<?php

$dir = "[URL unfurl="true"]http://"[/URL] . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] ./{$username}/";

// make directory
if (!(is_dir($dir))) {
    mkdir($dir, 0777);
chdir('./');
  }
?>

 

[Olavxxx]

Hi,
When concating strings, the . has to be outside of the "".
eg:

$r = "r";
$foo = "ba" . $r;

Also, dont use

http://,

but use:
/path/to/dir
./dir

...Or whatever is relative to the executing script!
Just make sure that they dont have access in the doc_root!

// Define directory
$dir = "./users/{$username}/";

// make directory
if (!(is_dir($dir))) {
    if (mkdir($dir, 0755)) {
        echo "The directory <strong>{$dir}</strong> was successfully created!";
      }
    else {
        echo "Error: The directory <strong>{$dir}</strong> could not be created!";
      }
  }

Olav Alexander Mjelde

http://www.volvo-power.net

Admin & Webmaster