Question

Is it possible to upload files (even big files) to a ftp using PHP?

Been reading about ftp_connect() and it looks like I can, or can’t I?

I had a look at this example, it’s in Italian but you can read the code anyway, if that does what I’m asking, will I have to add an html form? I need to be able to pick up a file form my computer via a web page and upload it to an ftp basically.

Anyone?

Thanks

Answer 1

Especially on large files, you should make sure that the maximum execution time for the script is big enough to complete the transfer before the script is aborted. You can choose the maximum execution time in the php.ini file.

You will have to use an HTML form if you want to pick up the file from your computer via a web page.

As soon as the form is submitted, you can access the file using the $_FILES array. You can use this information to get a temporary path to where the file is stored, and can read it from there to upload it to a remote server using the FTP functions.

You could also split the two processes by using the PHP script only to drop the file into the local file system, and then use a second program which runs locally to do the upload. This has the advantage that you won’t run into problems when multiple users upload simultaneously and your FTP is set up in a way that it allows only 1 simultaneous connection. You could program the second script also in PHP and run it using a Cronjob for example once per 30min.

If your goal is a direct stream from your computer to the FTP server, this is not easily possible using a pure PHP / HTML solution since the PHP script is only invoked when the file transfer from your computer to the machine serving the PHP script is complete.