JDT

FREE Downloads
Articles
Tutorials

Using PHP to Change the Permissions on a Folder

It is sometimes useful to enable visitors to your site to upload content, for example, photos, which can then be displayed on the site.

Folders on a website, for example, an images folder will typically have permissions of 755, which means that normal visitors to the site will be unable to upload content into the folder. If they try to do so they will receive an error message.

In order to allow the upload, one solution is to temporarily change the permissions on the folder to 777 before the upload is made, and then to change them back to 755 after the upload is complete.

The following PHP script shows how you can do this using PHP's ftp_site command. This script only changes the permissions one way (to 777), it doesn't change them back. You would need to extend the script or write another one to do this. The line that reads

    $mod = '0777'; // permissions to be set

is the one that determines what the permissions are going to be set to.

<?php

// Set up variables
$host = 'www.xyz.com'; // host (website) that contains the folder you want to change
$user = 'username'; // username to log onto the host
$password = 'password'; // password to log onto the host
$folder = 'public_html/test/'; // folder name whose permissions are to be changed
$mod = '0777'; // permissions to be set

// connect to FTP site
$conn = ftp_connect("$host");

if (!$conn)
{

    echo 'Error: Could not connect to ftp server';

exit;
}

// log in to FTP site
@ $result = ftp_login($conn, $user, $password);

if (!$result)
{

    echo "Error: Could not log on as $user";

    ftp_quit($conn);

    exit;
}

// try to change the permissions on the directory
if (ftp_site($conn, 'CHMOD '.$mod.' '.$folder)) {

    echo "Successfully changed permissions";
}

else {

    echo "There was a problem changing the permissions";

    ftp_quit($conn);

    exit;
}

// close the connection

ftp_close($conn);

?>

The script is fairly straight forward. You initially set up a few variables for the host name and stuff like that, you then connect to the FTP site, log on to the site, change the permissions of the folder, and then finally log off.

The path to the folder (assigned to $folder) will be something like 'public_html/.../'. Check with your ISP if you're not sure what this is.

Author: John Dixon
John Dixon Technology Ltd

Go back to PHP Tutorials home page

Go back to Tutorials home page

Earnings Tracker is John Dixon Technology's FREE open source accounting / bookkeeping software tool. Aimed at contractors and freelancers, Earnings Tracker enables you to perform many bookkeeping and accounting tasks, helping you to keep track of your company's earnings and outgoings. The software is written in PHP and MySQL and is available to use for FREE online, or as a FREE download. As it is written in open source software, you are free to modify the code yourself, enabling you to produce a customized version of Earnings Tracker that fits your own specification. Earnings Tracker can also be used simply as a dividend, corporation tax, or VAT calculator.

Copyright Notice for John Dixon Technology Ltd

Privacy Statement

Terms & Conditions