Save JavaScript array to server using PHP

Question

I have recently started coding with javascript/php using the Cloud9 IDE.

I know this may be a duplicate of some questions on here, but I have yet to find a solution that works for me.

I have an array of custom javascript objects that I would like to save to a file on the server (later to be retrieved to repopulate data on the page):

<script>
    var questionList = [];

    function saveToFile() {
    var x =JSON.stringify(questionList);
    $.post("saveQuestion.php", {data : x}, function(){alert("File saved successfully")});
    }
</script>

//in the body of the html
    <button id="saveToFileButton" type="button" onclick='saveToFile()'>Save to file</button>

The php file 'saveQuestion.php' is in the same directory, and is as follows:

<?php
$data = $_POST['data'];
file_put_contents("savetest.txt", $data);
?>

However, despite my best efforts, 'savetest.txt' remains empty.

I know that 'x' is being assigned the correct value as I can print it out to a html element.

Edit: The php script has permission to write to the file, but as far as I can tell it is never called. What would be a possible cause/solution to this?

Can someone offer a simple explanation that highlights what I am doing wrong and possible ways to fix it?

Thanks!

Looks fine to me, inspect what $data contains in php before the next line is ran. — user400654
– user400654, Commented May 30, 2013 at 19:50
Does your PHP file (which is trying to save to savetest.txt have write permission? — Phil Cross
– Phil Cross, Commented May 30, 2013 at 19:50
Check if you have the permission to write to the file, the code looks fine, which means that PHP script is probably not allowed to write to the file. Have it create a file with a random name and make sure that it can write to the directory where it's at. — N.B.
– N.B., Commented May 30, 2013 at 19:51
what would be the easiest way of inspecting $data and giving write permission? Edit: changing 'savetext.txt' to 'randomname.txt' resulted in the file 'randomname.txt' being created, but the contents were empty? — ms813
– ms813, Commented May 30, 2013 at 19:56
Actually, the file 'randomname.txt' is not created when the 'saveToFileButton' is pressed, rather when I manually ran the php file... — ms813
– ms813, Commented May 30, 2013 at 19:59

Mani Muridi · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-31 08:21:31Z

1

Maybe you should assign the questionsList array some values:

<script>

    // Check if your assigning a value to this array
    var questionList = ['value 1', 'value 2', 'etc..'];

    function saveToFile() {
    var x =JSON.stringify(questionList);
    $.post("saveQuestion.php", {data : x}, function(){alert("File saved successfully")});
}
</script>

answered May 31, 2013 at 8:21

Mani Muridi

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1 Comment

ms813 Over a year ago

questionList is assigned values elsewhere in the program, I have verified that it is not null by calling: alert(x);

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