PHP find files on server which contain certain strings

Question

I have a couple images in my images folder for example:

User12345_gallery0.png
User12345_profilePic.jpg
User12345_gallery1.png
User12345_gallery2.jpg
User54321_gallery0.png

What I'm trying to do is pass the user to my getimages.php and get that user's images. I've never done this before so I'm struggling with the syntax. Here's what I have so far:

if($_REQUEST['user']){
$ext = array('jpeg', 'png', 'jpg');
$dir = 'images/';
$user = $_REQUEST['user'];
$images = array();
foreach ($ext as $ex){
    if (file_exists(strpos($dir.$user."_gallery", "gallery"))) {
        //add file to $images???
    }
}
}

I want to check if the file contains the username and the instance of "gallery". How can I do that? Am I on the right track?

To begin with, file_exists() expects a file name and strpos() returns a string offset. — Álvaro González
– Álvaro González, Commented Apr 21, 2014 at 16:38
does your user id always have the same number of characters? — benomatis
– benomatis, Commented Apr 21, 2014 at 16:39
You could use glob to do a pattern search. However, since it needs to scan all the filenames in the entire directory on each call, it will perform horribly if your site gets popular. — Jonathan Kuhn
– Jonathan Kuhn, Commented Apr 21, 2014 at 16:39
Yes, I understand that is wrong. I don't know the exact file name...and I just noticed that I'm not looping through the entire images folder... — denikov
– denikov, Commented Apr 21, 2014 at 16:39

Shankar Narayana Damodaran · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-21 16:45:43Z

3

Use glob() and stripos() for this..

<?php

if($_REQUEST['user']){

    $user = $_REQUEST['user'];
    $images = array();
     foreach (glob("images/*.{jpg,png,gif}", GLOB_BRACE) as $filename) {
         if(stripos($filename,$user)!==false && stripos($filename,'gallery')!==false)
            $images[]=$filename;
    }
}

edited Apr 21, 2014 at 16:45

answered Apr 21, 2014 at 16:40

Shankar Narayana Damodaran

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8 Comments

benomatis Over a year ago

shouldn't the OP use glob(array('jpeg', 'png', 'jpg'))...?

Jonathan Kuhn Over a year ago

Why not just use a pattern with glob? glob($user."_gallery*")

benomatis Over a year ago

@JonathanKuhn looks like "_gallery" is not always part of the pattern, there is "profilePic" for example...

Jonathan Kuhn Over a year ago

You can't append an array to a string like that. You could use glob($user."_gallery*.{jpg,png,gif}", GLOB_BRACE);

Jonathan Kuhn Over a year ago

Sorry to turn your comments into a conversation :). I would just suggest that you use the $user."_gallery*.{jpg, png, gif}" pattern if searching for a specific user that you know idenified in $user and using "*_gallery*.{jpg, png, gif}" if searching for gallery for all users.

|

Freud Chicken · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-22 19:01:04Z

1

Why not just look at the pictures names in the directory and return the ones for your user ?

$ext = array('jpeg', 'png', 'jpg');
$dir = 'images/';
$user = $_REQUEST['user'];

// the length of your username (for the expression bellow)
$usernamelength  = strlen($user); 

// read a list of all files into an array
$filesindirarray = scandir($dir);

// loop through the list
foreach($filesindirarray as $filename)
{
   // does the filename start with
   if(substr($filename,0,($usernamelength+8)) ==  $user .'_gallery')
   {

      // fish out the files extension
      $fileext = pathinfo($filename, PATHINFO_EXTENSION);

      // if the extension of the files is in your list
      if(in_array($fileext,$ext))
         // add to images
    }
}

edited Apr 22, 2014 at 19:01

answered Apr 21, 2014 at 17:04

Freud Chicken

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2 Comments

denikov Over a year ago

Thanks for trying to help but in my question I showed that the way the images are named, some of them have "user_gallery..." and some have "user_profilePic...". So I don't think your way would get back just the gallery pics

Freud Chicken Over a year ago

I changed the code sothat only pictures with _aggery in the name are returned.

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