By Vikram Vaswani
Melonfire
November 07, 2000
We are a loyal FANS of PHP, we use it for various reasons - development of WEB site, drawing, database connection, etc. - we found that it is very friendly, powerful and easy to use...
You may have seen how PHP is used to create GIF and JPEG images, dynamically obtain information from the database, etc., but this is just the tip of the iceberg - the latest version of PHP has powerful file transfer capabilities.
In this tutorial, I will show you how FTP can transfer files through HTTP and FTP connections. There will also be some simple program code, follow me!
First of all, you should know that PHP transfers files through HTTP and FTP connections. Uploading files via HTTP has appeared as early as PHP3. Now, the new FTP function has appeared in the new PHP version!
Before you start, you need to be sure that your PHP supports FTP, you can check it out by following the following code:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?
phpinfo();
?>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check the output results and there is a "Additional Modules" area, which lists the modules supported by your PHP; if you don't find FTP modules, you'd better reinstall PHP and add FTP support!
Let’s first take a look at how a typical FTP task is completed!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
$ ftp
Connected to
220 FTP server ready.
Name (server:john): john
331 Password required for john.
Password:
230 User john logged in.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
drwxr-xr-x 5 john users 3072 Nov 2 11:03 .
drwxr-xr-x 88 root root 2048 Nov 1 23:26 ..
drwxr--r-- 2 john users 1024 Oct 5 13:26 bin
drwx--x--x 8 john users 1024 Nov 2 10:59 public_html
drwxr--r-- 4 john users 1024 Nov 2 11:26 tmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 john users 2941465 Oct 9 17:21
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> bin
200 Type set to I.
ftp> get
local: remote:
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for (2941465 bytes).
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> bye
221 Goodbye.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can see that the process is obviously divided into several segments: join (establishing a connection with the FTP server), verification (to determine whether the user has the authority to enter the system), transmission (including column directories, uploading or downloading files here), and canceling the connection.
Steps to Use PHP to FTP
To establish a PHP FTP connection, you must follow the following basic steps: Open a join - issue authentication information - use PHP functions to manipulate directories and transfer files.
The following specific implementations:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?
// Join FTP server
$conn = ftp_connect("");
// Log in using username and password
ftp_login($conn, "john", "doe");
// Get the remote system type
ftp_systype($conn);
// List the file
$filelist = ftp_nlist($conn, ".");
// Download the file
ftp_get($conn, "", "", FTP_BINARY);
// Close the connection
ftp_quit($conn);
?>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's go step by step:
In order to initially encrypt an FTP connection, PHP provides the function ftp_connect(), which uses the host name and port as parameters. In the example above, the host name is ""; if the port is not specified, PHP will use "21" as the default port to establish the connection.
After the connection is successful, ftp_connect() passes back a handle; this handle will be used by the FTP function used later.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?
// connect to FTP server
$conn = ftp_connect("");
?>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once the join is established, use ftp_login() to send a user name and user password. You can see that this function ftp_login() uses the handle passed by the ftp_connect() function to determine that the user name and password can be submitted to the correct server.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?
// log in with username and password
ftp_login($conn, "john", "doe");
?>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At this time, you can do what you want to do, and in the next part:
After doing what you want, remember to use the ftp_quit() function to close your FTP connection
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?
// close connection
ftp_quit($conn);
?>
Melonfire
November 07, 2000
We are a loyal FANS of PHP, we use it for various reasons - development of WEB site, drawing, database connection, etc. - we found that it is very friendly, powerful and easy to use...
You may have seen how PHP is used to create GIF and JPEG images, dynamically obtain information from the database, etc., but this is just the tip of the iceberg - the latest version of PHP has powerful file transfer capabilities.
In this tutorial, I will show you how FTP can transfer files through HTTP and FTP connections. There will also be some simple program code, follow me!
First of all, you should know that PHP transfers files through HTTP and FTP connections. Uploading files via HTTP has appeared as early as PHP3. Now, the new FTP function has appeared in the new PHP version!
Before you start, you need to be sure that your PHP supports FTP, you can check it out by following the following code:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?
phpinfo();
?>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check the output results and there is a "Additional Modules" area, which lists the modules supported by your PHP; if you don't find FTP modules, you'd better reinstall PHP and add FTP support!
Let’s first take a look at how a typical FTP task is completed!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
$ ftp
Connected to
220 FTP server ready.
Name (server:john): john
331 Password required for john.
Password:
230 User john logged in.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
drwxr-xr-x 5 john users 3072 Nov 2 11:03 .
drwxr-xr-x 88 root root 2048 Nov 1 23:26 ..
drwxr--r-- 2 john users 1024 Oct 5 13:26 bin
drwx--x--x 8 john users 1024 Nov 2 10:59 public_html
drwxr--r-- 4 john users 1024 Nov 2 11:26 tmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 john users 2941465 Oct 9 17:21
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> bin
200 Type set to I.
ftp> get
local: remote:
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for (2941465 bytes).
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> bye
221 Goodbye.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can see that the process is obviously divided into several segments: join (establishing a connection with the FTP server), verification (to determine whether the user has the authority to enter the system), transmission (including column directories, uploading or downloading files here), and canceling the connection.
Steps to Use PHP to FTP
To establish a PHP FTP connection, you must follow the following basic steps: Open a join - issue authentication information - use PHP functions to manipulate directories and transfer files.
The following specific implementations:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?
// Join FTP server
$conn = ftp_connect("");
// Log in using username and password
ftp_login($conn, "john", "doe");
// Get the remote system type
ftp_systype($conn);
// List the file
$filelist = ftp_nlist($conn, ".");
// Download the file
ftp_get($conn, "", "", FTP_BINARY);
// Close the connection
ftp_quit($conn);
?>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's go step by step:
In order to initially encrypt an FTP connection, PHP provides the function ftp_connect(), which uses the host name and port as parameters. In the example above, the host name is ""; if the port is not specified, PHP will use "21" as the default port to establish the connection.
After the connection is successful, ftp_connect() passes back a handle; this handle will be used by the FTP function used later.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?
// connect to FTP server
$conn = ftp_connect("");
?>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once the join is established, use ftp_login() to send a user name and user password. You can see that this function ftp_login() uses the handle passed by the ftp_connect() function to determine that the user name and password can be submitted to the correct server.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?
// log in with username and password
ftp_login($conn, "john", "doe");
?>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At this time, you can do what you want to do, and in the next part:
After doing what you want, remember to use the ftp_quit() function to close your FTP connection
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?
// close connection
ftp_quit($conn);
?>