Question

Problem: I want to determine the original file creation time from a file uploaded to my server via PHP.

My understanding is that the file is copied from the client to a temporary file on my server, which then is referenced in the $_FILES var. The temporary file is of course of no use because it was just created. Is there any way I could get the creation date from the clients original file?

Thanks

Answer 1

That data is not sent by the browser, so there’s no way to access it. The data sent along with the file is mime-type, filename and file contents.

If you want the creation date, you’ll either need the user to provide it or create a special file uploading mechanism via Flash or Java.