PHP 101: Uploading a file

Ralph Whitbeck — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:51:42 GMT

I am doing some freelance work with PHP and I am posting these for my future reference. This is basic PHP 101 stuff here.

The HTML Form:

 <form enctype="multipart/form-data" action="upload.php" method="post">
    Please upload your file:     <div>        
<input id="fileUpload" name="fileUpload" type="file">        
<input id="submit" name="submit" value="Submit" type="submit">    
</div> </form>

The key part to the form is enctype="multipart/form-data" which tells the server to expect a file on postback.

The upload php file to process the file:

 <?php     $target_path = "uploads/";

    $target_path = $target_path . basename( $_FILES['fileUpload']['name']);
    if (isset($_FILES['fileUpload']))     {        
if(move_uploaded_file($_FILES['fileUpload']['tmp_name'], $target_path)) {            
echo "The file ".  basename( $_FILES['fileUpload']['name']).            
" has been uploaded";              
} else {                  
echo "There was an error uploading the file, please try again!";              
}         } ?>

First we test to see if fileUpload has a value if so it attempts to save the file to the target path. If all goes well we get a message that the upload passed. If not a message that there was a problem.

Ralph Whitbeck - Blog - PHP

PHP 101: Uploading a file