Tag Archive for 'raspberry pi'

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Easy Writer: Setup for Raspberry Pi PHP

Published on August 1, 2013 by Bill Sanders in Beginning PHP OOP, MySql Connection and Raspberry PI. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

RaspPHPFocus on writing PHP Code

In fiddling around with PHP on a Raspberry Pi running on a Debian Linux OS more or less directly from a terminal mode, I realized that the focus (in my case) was getting the Linux commands right and very little with actually writing PHP programs. Most queries about getting the setup right involved Linux system administration and not PHP programming.

This short post is for Raspberry Pi users (and perhaps Linux users in general), and it focuses on setting up your Raspberry Pi so that you can use default Raspberry Pi editors (LeafPad) and the File Manager to work with PHP programs. Once set up, you will find the process of creating server-side programs in PHP much easier with no need to use the  terminal editors after setting up your system.

Installing Apache and PHP

Because PHP is a server-side language, you will need both a server and PHP installed on your Raspberry Pi. Using the Root Terminal (Accessories → Root Terminal), enter the following line:

sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5

Press the Enter key and patiently wait until it’s completed the setup. Once done, you computer will have both a web server and PHP installed. To test whether installation was successful, open a browser from the main menu (Internet → NetSurf Web Browser) and enter the following:

  http://localhost/

If everything works, you will see the message shown in Figure 1 on the right:

Figure 1: Default Web Page

Figure 1: Default Web Page

This location (http://localhost) is the root for your Web pages—PHP and any other Web page you decide to put on your Raspberry Pi Apache server. The name of the file is index.html. On your Raspberry Pi, in the Linux file system, the address is:

  /var/www/

Open the File Manager (Accessories → File Manager) and in the window where you see /home/pi enter /var/www. You will now be able to see the icon for the html file that was automatically created when you installed the Apache server.
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PHP Graphic CMS Class with Template Method

Published on June 25, 2013 by Bill Sanders in CMS, Template Method and Upload Files. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

uploadLoad Up the Graphic Files

In Part IV of the Content Management System (CMS) series, I noted that I wanted to have a separate post on uploading graphics to a web server. This post addresses the issues involved in getting graphics in place on a web server that will be included in a Web page, whether you’re using a CMS or not. In the case of selecting a graphic from your desktop and uploading it to a server, most of the important work is done by HTML. So, we’ll start with the HTML assuming that HTML5 is in use. Be advised at the outset that you will need to do a little system administration to set your file privileges in the folders where you will store the graphic files. In the development process, I used a local host, a different computer on my LAN, and two different web servers at remote locations.

Choosing a File to Upload

HTML5 (and possibly earlier versions) has some very nice built-in form attributes that make selecting a graphic file from your computer to place in an “uploadable” state quite easy. All you need are a couple of lines of HTML. Within a form container, the line:

generates the following button when you load the code into a browser:

In the

tag, you will need to include an enctype assignment:

That’s about it, and you’re all set to select a file that can be accessed through the PHP superglobal variable $_FILES.

The following HTML code generates the CSS first the then HTML portion of the little graphic CMS:

?View Code CSS 
@charset "UTF-8";
/* CSS Document */
/* upload.css */
body
{
    font-family: Verdana, helvetica, arial, futura, sans-serif;
    color:#991C00;
    background-color:#FFFCDB; 
}
 
h1
{
    font-family: "Arial Black", futura, sans-serif;
    color:#E09A25;
    background-color:#262B30;
    text-align: center;
}
?View Code HTML 
< !doctype html>

    
        
            
        Catalog Files
    

    
Graphic File Loader

    
    Click the 'Choose File' button to browse your local drive for files to upload:

        

    Once you have chosen a file, click the 'Load Graphic File' button to upload the file to your web server:

I added separation between the Choose File button and Load Graphic File submit button so that the HTML and PHP portions are more clearly defined. Figure 1 shows the initial web page for the upload:

Figure 1: Selecting and calling PHP Script

Figure 1: Selecting and calling PHP Script

Since the goal of having a CMS is to make updates simple, this initial example does not have any whistles and bells (e.g., folder selection), and it does nothing more than to prepare a selected file for upload to a server.

A Little PHP

On the PHP side of the equation, you have only two code elements:

  1. $_FILES: Superglobal array with selected file information in elements
  2. move_uploaded_file(): Stores uploaded file (in $_FILES) to in specified server location.

Creating a class, using the minimum code and no error, type or size checking, is quite simple. To keep it even simpler, the following trigger script instantiates the Upload class:

?View Code PHP 
< ?php
//triggerUpload.php
include_once("Upload.php");
$worker = new Upload();
?>

After testing the initial Upload class, we’ll see how it can be enhanced. First, though, take a look at the code:

?View Code PHP 
< ?php
//Upload.php
class Upload
{
    private $fileNow;
    public function __construct()
{
        if ($_FILES)
        {
            $this->fileNow=$_FILES["file"]["name"];
 
            //The following line does all the work
            move_uploaded_file($_FILES["file"]["tmp_name"],"images/$this->fileNow");
 
            echo $this->fileNow . " has been uploaded to the images folder:";
        }
    }
}
?>

That simple class does everything you need to upload and store a file in a folder named “images” in the directory where the script is launched. It’s pretty basic, but you should be able to see exactly what is required to upload a file to a web server without having to use an FTP client.

Template Method for Details

Note: Before you get started on this section, download all of the files that are involved:
Download

As you saw, the Upload class is quite easy. However, you will want to make sure that not just any file type is loaded and you’ll want to make sure that you don’t have giant files loaded that may fill up your disk space. (You also want to protect against maliciously uploaded files.) The $_FILES array has information to use for checking type and size. Using the $_FILES array information we can boil the process down to three steps:

  1. checkSize(); See how big it is and compare to a maximum allowable size.
  2. checkType(); Add a set of acceptable file types used with a Web page and check to see if the file type is acceptable.
  3. uploadFile(); If the file type and size are okay, upload the file.

Click below to continue:
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