Writing to text file via Dreamweaver

Hey,

Sorry about posting another thread so soon and I know that this has been asked many a times before, but the search function here was going all screwy for me so I decided to just ask it striaght up.

Anyways, I have an input text box that when a button is clicked, needs to have the content stored inside sent to a text file. I thought it would have been possible to send it straight to the text file like you would load from, but apparantly that's not avaibable anymore and requires a 3rd party program.

Well I have absolutly no knowledge in any 3rd party program that could do this, but I do have Dreamweaver on my computer here.

So Im asking, can someone please explain how I would simply send contents from an input box (from flash) to a text file in the same directory?

Thanks :D

I know you can do this with server side scripting such as ASP, PHP or ColdFusion, is that an option?

Well Dreamweaver supports Asp , so yes, thats an option. Though I have no clue how to do it.

I stick to Flash, and I know I should be learning other things since they all work together in the end.

Dreamweaver will support all of them, however, you have to have one of those application servers on either you local machine (and then the files have to be in the right folders and called through http to be executed correctly), or you have to have one of those application servers avaiable on whoever is hosting the site.

So it is more a matter of what servers you have installed or avaiable on your hosting server.

Hope that makes sense.

I see , that somewhat makes sense. I used an asp file using dreamweaver to save an xml list to a text file through Flash, though it was a long time ago and I dont have the original files anywhere.

Well if you figure out what you have server wise it is actually not that hard to do.

What exactly do you mean by that, I know at my work computer I have Sql Server, is that what your asking?

Haha, sorry for my stupidity :rolleyes:

What's you actual server? IIS, Apache? if You have mySQL chances are you have PHP as well.

Real easy way to tell is to do the following:

save a page called test.asp in this file have only one line that reads:
<%
Response.Write("My server has ASP")
%>
save another page as test.php in this file have one line that reads:
<?php
echo "My server has PHP."
?>
upload these to your server and then in the web browser ener the url for each
if the text in quotations shows up in the in the browser, then you server supposrs that language.

Great, Ill do it tomorrow at work and give the results.

Thanks for the help by the way Kortex - really appreciate it :)

Let me know how it goes.

Hey Kortex,

Ok I tried it, and they both displayed the text in the browser. :D

Well then, you have your choice of ASP or PHP. Either way you will most likely use a LoadVars object to send the data to the page:

Then on the page you create the ASP or PHP code to save the file to a spcific directory on the server.

For ASP Example See:
http://www.freevbcode.com/ShowCode.asp?ID=89

For PHP Example:
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.fwrite.php

Well then, you have your choice of ASP or PHP. Either way you will most likely use a LoadVars object to send the data to the page:

Then on the page you create the ASP or PHP code to save the file to a spcific directory on the server.

For ASP Example See:
http://www.freevbcode.com/ShowCode.asp?ID=89

For PHP Example:
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.fwrite.php

Sorry about the double post. Was not intentional. Kept getting a server too busy message.

Yea, I keep that as well, and it looks like my post didnt go through.

Anyways, I was saying that Ive decded to go with the Asp option as it is easier to look at on my part. So I have to make an Asp file and place the following contents in it:

code:

---

<%

function WriteToFile(FileName, Contents, Append)

on error resume next



if Append = true then

   iMode = 8

else 

   iMode = 2

end if

set oFs = server.createobject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

set oTextFile = oFs.OpenTextFile(FileName, iMode, True)

oTextFile.Write Contents

oTextFile.Close

set oTextFile = nothing

set oFS = nothing



end function



%>



<HTML>

<BODY>



<%



WriteToFile "C:\Test1.txt", "Hello How are you", True

WriteToFile "C:\Test2.txt", "Hello How are you", false

WriteToFile "C:\Test1.txt", chr(13) & chr(10) & "I am fine", true

WriteToFile "C:\Test2.txt", chr(13) & chr(10) & "I am fine", false

'Test1.txt contains:

'Hello How are you

'I am fine



'Test2.text contains:



'I am fine

%>

Write to File test is complete

</BODY>

</HTML>

---

I then have to mess around with it. I should get rid of all WriteToFile lines and replace it with what suits my needs.

But how exactly do I send a variable containing the text to the Asp file?

WriteToFile "stuff.txt", VariablefromFlash , True

Well lets assume you will use the post method to avoid problems with string length:

In Flash:
var sendDat:LoadVars = new LoadVars();

//submit triggering event probably a button
on (release){
sendDat.fileContent = flashVariable
//keep in mind that this will not work with the preview in Flash. You will have to preview the file in an HTML page located in the local server folder. For right now we will open the ASP page in a new browser window to see if the var passed.
sendDat.send("pathtoASPFile.asp", "_blank", "POST")
}

In the ASP File.
//For now dont worry about the writing of the file, we just want to see if the variable got passed. Use the following to write out the variable passed from Flash. You can then use the Request.Form("varName") in the write code to reference the variable from flash.

<%= "Variable from Flash = " & Request.Form("fileContent") %>

See if you can get that to work.

Great it works!

So I can now send variables to asp. All left to do is write the asp file to a text file, and I just used the code you gave me from that link?

Ok, this is what I have in my ASP file:

code:

---

<%

function WriteToFile(FileName, Contents, Append)

on error resume next



if Append = true then

   iMode = 8

else 

   iMode = 2

end if

set oFs = server.createobject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

set oTextFile = oFs.OpenTextFile(FileName, iMode, True)

oTextFile.Write Contents

oTextFile.Close

set oTextFile = nothing

set oFS = nothing



end function



%>



<HTML>

<BODY>



<%

WriteToFile "testStuff.txt", Request.Form("fileContent"), True

%>

</BODY>

</HTML>

---

Its exactly the same except for the WriteToFile function at the bottom, just changed it to use the Request.Form ("fileContent") which is the variable in Flash.

But it didnt write anything to the text file, still empty. Any thoughts?

Well if I am reding the code from the site I sent correctly, it looks like it is opening an existing file and then adding to it. So try creating a blank txt file with the same name as the file you are trying to write to on the server in the correct location and see if that works.

I tried that with no luck.

The files that are contained are:

- The Flash Swf [test.fla]
- The Asp file [test.asp]
- The Text file [testStuff.txt]

Here is another method:
http://sap.ittoolbox.com/groups/tech.../asp-l/467097#
are you getting any erros when the page executes?

I got the PHP method to work for me. ASP kept giving my a persmission violation.

Hey,

No I didnt get any errors, it just simply didnt write anything to the file. I think it just might be a permissions problem. I wont have a chance to test it tomorrow, but on friday I'll give it a shot.

If not, then I'll use the php method :)

Hey again,

Sorry to bring this up again, but heres where Im at. The asp method isnt working and I think its because of some premission problems as well. I decided to try using Php with that tutorial you gave me.

By using the code:

PHP Code:

---

<?php
$filename = 'testStuff.txt';
$somecontent = "Add this to the file\n";

// Let's make sure the file exists and is writable first.
if (is_writable($filename)) {

   // In our example we're opening $filename in append mode.
   // The file pointer is at the bottom of the file hence 
   // that's where $somecontent will go when we fwrite() it.
   if (!$handle = fopen($filename, 'a')) {
         echo "Cannot open file ($filename)";
         exit;
   }

   // Write $somecontent to our opened file.
   if (fwrite($handle, $somecontent) === FALSE) {
       echo "Cannot write to file ($filename)";
       exit;
   }
   
   echo "Success, wrote ($somecontent) to file ($filename)";
   
   fclose($handle);

} else {
   echo "The file $filename is not writable";
}
?>

---

I was able to change the text file to display the words Add this to the file when I ran it on the internet.

So my question is, how do you use flash to send a variable for Php to write to the text file, like we did with the asp file?

Cancel that, I got it to work!

Thanks so much for your help Kortex, I owe you one :D

Cool, No prob. Good luck.

Hmm,

This is more out of curiousity then it is a problem, just wondering something that might be useful for future projects.

Imagine you have a text file that simply contains comment1=0;

Now at the click of a button, you want to store inside a variable, the number contained inside the text file but added by one. So in this case, it would store instead of a zero, a one.

So when you click the button, it would be something like:

code:

---

 

on (release) {

myText = new LoadVars();

myText.onLoad = function() {

numberComment = this.comment1;

inputComment = numberComment+1; 

   }; 

  myText.load("text files/commentVariable.txt");

---

But when I tried doing that, it just posted up the zero contained inside the text box as well as adding a one beside.



Secondly, say after that all happens and you successfully stored the number of the text file inside a variable added by one. Is it possible to then change the zero in the text file to one? [again, incremented by one]

I am not sure if this is right. But if I remember correctly whenever you load vars, they are loaded as strings. So you might have to convert the string to a number before adding it. Let me look into it.

Thats what I thought so I tried the whole Number(string) concept. It came back with a NaN value. Perhaps I just didnt use it properly :p

did you try :
parseInt(yourVar);

No, didnt know that exsisted, someone told me to do the whole Number() thing.

But it works, thanks!



So thats one of two things completed haha. I feel like Im asking way to much of you, so dont feel obligated to help me if your tired of it ;)

The final step is to take whats contained inside this variable inputComment = parseInt(numberComment)+1; and send it to the text file commentVariable.txt

Now thats easy, here's the catch.

Inside this text file contains the line &comment1=0 and notice how there is a zero set to it. What needs to happen is that the value in the variable inputComment must overwrite that zero to the value its holding.

The Php code I have is:

PHP Code:

---

<?php
//phps opening tags are  "<" + "?" 
//these are the variables that will 
//hold data sent from flash via  input textbox
//data is sent by  sending part of  loadVars object
//inputData is a variable we will set in flash, 
// its a variable attached 
//to the loadVars object and will be send to  php 
$receivedFromFlashData = $_POST['inputData'];
//this is to make our textfile readable and writable 
//place it in a variable so we can refer back to it easily.
// ( @  symbol is to hold back certain error messages)
$myTextFileHandler = @fopen("writeComment1.txt","r+");
// With @file we will turn our textfile 
// into an array so we can know how 
// many entries there are in the file.

$txtfileArray = @file("writeComment1.txt");

//here we check if we could open the file 
// if everything is ok , go on.

if($myTextFileHandler){
//a print to help us 
// so this will not be send to flash.
print("txtFile is opened\n");
//loop through the text file array 
//remember -> @file("membersDatabase.txt");
//use $count variable in the string we send to text file,
// it attaches a number to the string for us 
//to show how may times we inserted something into textfile.

foreach($txtfileArray as $count => $member);
//We go to the last byte of the file, 
// because we want to insert data at  end of the file

$gotoLastByteOfTxTFile
= @fseek($myTextFileHandler,0,SEEK_END);
//Increase count by one 
//because an array starts counting at 0.

$count = $count + 1;
// make a variable writeInTxtFile with command @fwrite.
//It will write a string  into the text file 
//defined in myTextFileHandler, 
//notice the \n makes it start on a new line each time .

$writeInTxtFile = @fwrite($myTextFileHandler,$receivedFromFlashData);
//"\nreceived from flash $count=$receivedFromFlashData");
 
//Was writing into the txtfile  a success , 
// if true print a variable to flash to be handled
// in the response loadVars Object.

if($writeInTxtFile){
    
// make a variable to hold the message  in flash 
// if writing to the textfile was a succes.

$writeStatus = "writing to textfile was a succes";

//printed to flash and this  data is actually attached to 
// the loadvars object we defined in flash.
// can acces like  a variable in a movieclip or object.
//can set this variable to be show in a textbox like this:
// mytextbox.text =    myReveivingLoadvars.writeStatus
// this piece of code must be triggered in the 
// myReveivingLoadvars.onLoad part

print("&writeStatus=$writeStatus");

//if writing was a failure we print that to flash

}else{
$writeStatus = "writing to textfile was a big failure";
print("&writeStatus=$writeStatus");
};
//here we close the stream to the textfile

@fclose($myTextFileHandler);
 // If opening the text file was a failure in 
 //the first place we print this to the php output.
// You can also send error messages like this to flash, 
// just change the print command to something like:

//print("&failMsg = $youErrorMsg"); 
//and call the failMsg variable in your flash
//  file in the receiving onLoad part of 
//the loadVars object e.g. like 
// myTextBox.text = myReceiveLV.failMsg. 
}else{
print("opening txtfile has failed\n");
};

//this is printed to flash and received by the reveiver
// part of our loadVars object. 
// This piece of data will be show in a textbox
// in flash immediately after a you press submit.
// so you sumbit your inputted text in flash , 
//its ran through this little 
// engine like php script and you immediately receive
// an answer back.
//print("&receivedData=$receivedFromFlashData");

?>

---

...

Thanks! :D

Take a look at this:
http://www.thescripts.com/forum/thread5376.html

Oh,

So the line $myTextFileHandler = @fopen("writeComment1.txt","r+"); the second value in the brackets is what you want the contents to do. To overwrite it you simply replace it with a 'w'.

Am I right in saying that?

Sorry, cant test it right now so thats my guess.

That's what i looked like it was saying to me.

Hey!

Just getting back with an update, I tested it and it completly overwrites the text file when replacing the second parameter with a 'w'

Its probably a bit primitive, but it works!


Thanks so much for your help Kortex, it seems like everything I need to continue on is working, so thank you!

I just hope thats everything :rolleyes:

Hey if it works it works. Can imagine code that small is placing a huse burden on the processor or server.

Good luck.