writing/reading external files

[steelersfan88]

I use javascript and vbscript for everything so I kinda don't know any PHP, but I know that what I need has some PHP possibilities.

I developed a code to write to a file 4 values in the form:

value1 (name), value2 (date), value3 (time), value4 (email)

The file is a basic txt file located in paths/file.txt. It contains many lines though and I need a code that will:

1) loop the number of lines the text file is
2) retrieve the values(1-4) of the first line in which user input is equal to value4 of that line
3) i want to redirect the user to a page, depending on the values, based on an 'if' condition

The text file looks like:

John, 23 December 2003, 12:23, email@server.com
Matt, 24 December 2003, 1:53, email@server.com
Mark, 25 December 2003, 8:25, email@server.com
Jen, 26 December 2003, 21:14, email@server.com

The code on the page has a text box and asks for email address. It then will check the address of each line until it finds a matching one. Then, depending on all four values of the first matching line, the user will be redirected to a specified page, for example: 'their name.htm'. If the emails don't match, it will go to '/newemail.htm'

I think it is possible, but I am not quite sure where to start!

[PunkSktBrdr01]

To get the values, you can use explode().

To read/write to a file, you'll need the filesystem functions.

Here's a basic way to do what you want:

<?php
$fileName = "paths/file.txt"; // path and name of file
$newMailPage = "newmail.htm"; // path and name of new email page
$email = $_GET['email']; // form email input;  change 'email' to the name of the input; change to $_POST['email'] if you use the POST method
$fileHandle = file($fileName); // open the file and read assign each line to an array
foreach ($fileHandle as $line) {
    list($val1, $val2, $val3, $val4) = explode(',', $line); // split the line into the four variables
    $val1 = trim($val1); // remove whitespace from the front and back of the string
    $val2 = trim($val2);
    $val3 = trim($val3);
    $val4 = trim($val4);
    if ($val4 == $email) {
        header("Location: " . $val1 . ".htm"); // send a redirect header
        exit; // exit the program, so the user won't be redirected to the new mail page
    }
}
header("Location: " . $newMailPage);
?>

Hope that helps!

[steelersfan88]

thanks so much i changed it a tad because the one page wouldn't upload but it works perfectly!!!

[PunkSktBrdr01]

Glad to help!