PHP file_exists not working

Question

I'm trying to make profile photos show up against a list of reviews on a site I'm working on. If they don't have a profile photo I have a standard image to show instead, unfortunately the image always goes to the standard image rather than the profile even if it exists. Heres the code:

$reviewerPic = 'http://www.[URL].co.uk/images/members/' . $reviewPosterId . '/profilePic.jpg';
$default_pic = 'http://www.[URL].co.uk/images/background.jpg';
    if(file_exists($reviewerPic)){
        $reviewer_pic = '<img src="' . $reviewerPic . '" width="100px" style="float: left; margin: 20px;" />';
    }else {
        $reviewer_pic = '<img src="' . $default_pic . '" width="100px" style="float: left; margin: 20px;" />';
}

Pretty generic code but it doesn't seem to work! It just keeps showing the background image...

Any ideas on why file_exists wouldn't be working?

Have a look at this question: stackoverflow.com/questions/1722613/… - it pretty much does what you need. — Aleks G
– Aleks G, Commented Jun 6, 2012 at 11:36

mishu · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-06 11:35:07Z

21

The function you are using, file_exists, uses physical paths, the parameter you need to provide should be the address on that server where the file can be found, and not an url

Sou you should have something like

/home/var/www/images/

instead of

http://www.[URL].co.uk/images/

So you need to check if the file exists on the server locally and after that you can use an url to make it available to the public (in img src)

You can see on the man page that this function only works with some URL wrappers, so it is better to use paths and not urls (I guess it depends on allow url fopen setting)

answered Jun 6, 2012 at 11:35

mishu

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4 Comments

user1421994 Over a year ago

Ahh you're a genius man, just like php include files... Can't believe I didn't even try that. Thanks a lot!!

Arthur Kushman Over a year ago

Another tricky moment - U can use file_exists('./images/filename.jpg'); PHP knows where web-root folder is through ./, this is much comfortable if ex.: U may set a new dir for web server to work with, then the /home/var/www/images/ might not be a solution U need.

johnsnails Over a year ago

Another useful thing to always find the image even in included php files is to use __DIR__. So something like file_exists(__DIR__ . '/../image/image.jpg'); Helps ensure the correct path no matter what.

mishu Over a year ago

@johnsnails I am guessing that as long as you are sure that the current directory won't be changed with chdir somewhere above (now or in the future, by you or someone else) it should be fine.

Aelios · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-15 14:42:09Z

5

file_exists does not work with HTTP,

use : $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] to access root in your host

so

$reviewerPic = $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"].'/images/members/' . $reviewPosterId .  '/profilePic.jpg';
$default_pic = $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"].'/images/background.jpg';

edited Jun 15, 2012 at 14:42

answered Jun 6, 2012 at 11:36

Aelios

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1 Comment

Stefan Over a year ago

Or $_SERVER['CONTEXT_DOCUMENT_ROOT'] even if your alias is not under your document root.

Steve · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-06 11:34:47Z

1

File_exists uses the /home/www/username/public_html/ format. You may want to retrieve this from your host.

So it would be something like /home/www/jack/public_html/[URL].co.uk/profilepic/id/profilePic.jpg.

By the way, no need to use . in your echo '<img src=... . You can use variables inside of strings, you should only use the . when you need to modify it using a function or something, like "string0".function($str....)."string1";

answered Jun 6, 2012 at 11:34

Steve

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Comments

Emil Vikström · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-06 11:42:59Z

1

According to the PHP manual for file_exists not all protocols supports the function:

this function can also be used with some URL wrappers. Refer to Supported Protocols and Wrappers to determine which wrappers support stat() family of functionality.

The HTTP wrapper does not support stat:

Supports stat() No

edited Jun 6, 2012 at 11:42

answered Jun 6, 2012 at 11:36

Emil Vikström

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Comments

Praveen Kumar Purushothaman · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-06 11:35:44Z

0

the file_exists PHP function works only on physical files like /var/www/file.ext or C:\WWW\File.ext and not for HTTP Files. It doesn't even know how to handle HTTP files.

In this case, if you want to know if the file is there or not, since it is going to be an HTTP Response, you can try using curl, which if it responds with 404, then the file is not found.

For more information, check out these: http://php.net/manual/en/function.file-exists.php and http://php.net/manual/en/book.curl.php

answered Jun 6, 2012 at 11:35

Praveen Kumar Purushothaman

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Comments

j0k · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-06 15:57:23Z

0

file_exists doesn't support remote URLs.

You can try this:

if (fopen($reviewerPic, "r"))
   echo "File exists!";

edited Jun 6, 2012 at 15:57

j0k

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answered Jun 6, 2012 at 11:36

Uhehesh

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Comments

user4564807 · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-25 12:39:33Z

0

Try simple one.

$reviewerPic = 'http://www.[URL].co.uk/images/members/' . $reviewPosterId . '/profilePic.jpg';
$default_pic = 'http://www.[URL].co.uk/images/background.jpg';
    if($fileopen = @fopen($reviewerPic)){
        $reviewer_pic = '<img src="' . $reviewerPic . '" width="100px" style="float: left; margin: 20px;" />';
       fclose($fileopen);
    }else {
        $reviewer_pic = '<img src="' . $default_pic . '" width="100px" style="float: left; margin: 20px;" />';
}

answered Jun 25, 2016 at 12:39

user4564807

Comments

Masud · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-20 17:39:19Z

0

A great way to handle it is here ~

<?php

$imgok="1.webp"; // Your actual image
$imgerr="template.webp"; // If image is missing
$dir="/assets/image/products/"; // Location of the image directory

$path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].$dir. $imgok; // Full Paths for processing

echo file_exists($path) ? $dir.$imgok : $dir.$imgerr; // Actual paths for domain to get the image

?>

edited Mar 20, 2021 at 17:39

answered Mar 20, 2021 at 16:54

Masud

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