How To *Really* Upload Files With PHP

I’ve noticed that whenever I search for a “php upload script” or “how to upload files”, the first page of Gogle results is full of pages that tell you how to handle file uploads = letting users to upload something to your server. But what if you actually want to create a PHP script that will upload a file to another website?

So today I will show you a simple PHP upload script that simulates a web browser uploading a file through a file submission form. I’ll be using the excellent CURL library for this purpose.

So, without further ado, here’s the upload script :

/* This should be a fully qualified filename of the file you 
want to upload. Relative filenames may not work. */
$filename = "/folder/file.txt";

/* The page that processes the upload. You can usually 
find this in the "ACTION" field of the HTML form. */
$submit_url = "http://example.com/handle_upload.php";

/* The form fields and their values. */
$post_data = array(
	"field1" => "value1",
	"field2" => "value2",
	"file_field" => "@$filename"
); 
/* The general format for file upload fields is '@file_name_here'. 
If the form you're has multiple file fields you can upload 
several files if you use the correct field names. */

$ch = curl_init($submit_url); 
/* Follow redirects (optional) */
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION,1); 
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); 
/* Use the "POST" method (possibly redundant) */
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1); 
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $post_data);

/* Upload the file now */
$results = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close ($ch);
/* Now the $results variable contains any response the 
$submit_url might have returned, or false if upload failed*/

Naturally you will need to modify the $submit_url and other variables to fit your situation.

Also note that in most practical cases you must “log in” to the target website before you can upload anything, so you might want to read my how to log in with PHP and CURL post.

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5 Responses to “How To *Really* Upload Files With PHP”

  1. Cash Volume says:

    My question is how… how do you upload an entire directory with files and sub directories in one swoop using php? havn’t had any luck find the solution with google searches…

  2. Informative post! Thanks

  3. […] Zum File Upload per Formular folgendes Beispiel: ø How To *Really* Upload Files With PHP | W-Shadow.com ø Zum Fileupload via PUT folgendes Beispiel: RESTful PUT calls with PHP and Curl :: Jaisen Mathai […]

  4. HERE says:

    I found your blog on google and read about 5 of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the sick work Look forward to reading more from you in the future. Wishing you the best

  5. art says:

    I am trying to upload 2 files to sites that require 2 files for input. those sites proccess those files and I need those outputs. The example above shows how to submit to one of the form file fields but does not even give a hint as to how to do it when there are two file fields on the webserver form that you want to upload your file to. can someone please help . I was supposed to find this answer last week.

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