APIs: POST any local file to a php server

[Scott Ferguson]

This test configuration works for me, but I cannot guarantee it will work on other servers than with the hosting service I use (000webhost.com). Oddly enough it requires no header information to be entered from App Inventor, yet allows use of the Web component's PostFile block with the added bonus that I did not have to figure out how to tell the server what type of data I was sending in a Content-Type entry. It is just a data stream that the server captures and converts back into a file. The php $_GET variable works also to pass the file name for the destination file as a switch on the URL.

Well, here it is...

[Zach Soflin]

any ideas why I would get a 403 forbidden and 404 Not found when using this? have been trying for hours and can't get the file to upload. I suspect it has something to do with the data stream, but am not experienced in php. Any ideas?

[Scott Ferguson]

Make sure that your permissions to the directory folder on the server and to the file being written to allow write access and that the php script has execute access. Other than that, I don't know. I posted a question once on the PHP forum but got no response whatsoever so don't expect much help there.
---sfs

[Zach Soflin]

Thanks for the quick reply Scott, I must have missed the alert email because I just saw your response, sorry. you were right, I use Hostgator and they had to whitelist the script for it to work. I now can send the POST request from App Inventor, and get the file to show up in the directory. The problem is the file is empty. Seems the data stream isn't working. Any ideas? did you have this problem? Thanks again for the help, I have been scouring the web for an answer to this. 

-Zach

[Taifun]

see here http://php.net/manual/en/wrappers.php.php
as it seems to be, always_populate_raw_post_data is set to false on your server. You can find that out, with the following script:

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

but some web hoster do not allow to change that parameter...
see also here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9907896/what-are-the-alternatives-for-php-input-and-http-raw-post-data-when-file-get

let us know if you get it running...
probably I should try that http://stackoverflow.com/a/10320453/1545993 myself too if I find some time?
Taifun

php://input

php://input is a read-only stream that allows you to read raw data from the request body. In the case of POST requests, it is preferable to use php://input instead of $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA as it does not depend on special php.ini directives. Moreover, for those cases where $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA is not populated by default, it is a potentially less memory intensive alternative to activating always_populate_raw_post_data. php://input is not available with enctype="multipart/form-data".

[Zach Soflin]

Thanks for the quick reply Taifun, 

Hum... I contacted HostGator and got always_populate_raw_post_data enabled. Using phpinfo() i can see that it is enabled. I am still getting a blank file in my directory with no errors anywhere. I guess the only problem showing is when I hit the "Post" button on Scotts example, It gives me the error "1104 unable to Post file..." but if I push the button again the response reads "file transfer completed".and the blank file shows up on my web server. Any other ideas? This is stumping me.

-Zach

[Zach Soflin]

GOT IT! wow that took way too long, but I found a post from Scott that said to try swapping out php://input with php://stdin. It worked! So anyone using host gator make sure to enable always_populate_raw_post_data by contacting customer service and begging and pleading (they are pretty good about it). Then using Scotts example but swap out php://input for php://stdin. Thanks for the direction you two.

-Zach

[Scott Ferguson]

Glad you got it working, Zach! And thanks Taifun :)
---sfs

[Taifun]

I now played around with the workaround mentioned above and put together an example here http://puravidaapps.com/postfile.php
This workaround is useful, if you can't set the flag always_populate_raw_post_data = on on your server
Taifun

[Scott Ferguson]

Very nice -- and that Pear package provides the workaround on the PHP end.
---sfs

[Zach Soflin]

Hi again,

Do either of you know if you can detect the error 1104 when it pops up? I essentially have this script uploading the image every time the camera takes a picture. It works 75% of the time, but sometimes I get an error bubble that pops up for a few seconds then disappears  it says, "error 1104" and then says it wasn't able to POST the file. I would like to be able to detect it so I can have the app try again. Any ideas?

-Zach

[Taifun]

you can try to catch the error with the Screen.ErrorOcurred block
Taifun

Am Montag, 11. Februar 2013 18:46:49 UTC-6 schrieb Zach Soflin:

Hi again,

Do either of you know if you can detect the error 1104 when it pops up? I essentially have this script uploading the image every time the camera takes a picture. It works 75% of the time, but sometimes I get an error bubble that pops up for a few seconds then disappears  it says, "error 1104" and then says it wasn't able to POST the file. I would like to be able to detect it so I can have the app try again. Any ideas?

-Zach

On Wednesday, February 6, 2013 11:42:55 AM UTC-6, Zach Soflin wrote:

GOT IT! wow that took way too long, but I found a post from Scott that said to try swapping out php://input with php://stdin. It worked! So anyone using host gator make sure to enable always_populate_raw_post_data by contacting customer service and begging and pleading (they are pretty good about it). Then using Scotts example but swap out php://input for php://stdin. Thanks for the direction you two.

-Zach

On Wednesday, February 6, 2013 11:06:19 AM UTC-6, Zach Soflin wrote:

Thanks for the quick reply Taifun, 

Hum... I contacted HostGator and got always_populate_raw_post_data enabled. Using phpinfo() i can see that it is enabled. I am still getting a blank file in my directory with no errors anywhere. I guess the only problem showing is when I hit the "Post" button on Scotts example, It gives me the error "1104 unable to Post file..." but if I push the button again the response reads "file transfer completed".and the blank file shows up on my web server. Any other ideas? This is stumping me.

-Zach

On Wednesday, February 6, 2013 9:50:46 AM UTC-6, Taifun wrotey to

[Zach Soflin]

Perfect, thanks, exactly what I was looking for!

-Zach

[Simon Carr]

Hi Scott,

Thank you for this. I have a problem however. My server just saves an empty (0kb) image file. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

Simon

[Taifun]

are you able to set the flag always_populate_raw_post_data = on ?
Taifun

[Simon Carr]

Yep, I already did that, then restarted apache and checked my php.ini which says it is on.

I have tried php://input, php://stdin and $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA

I tried echo'ing out the value of $data but it is empty so I am not sure if my phone is even sending any data in the post. I am using the unaltered provided by your self. I just changed the URL and the get variable from filename to fn to suit scott's PHP script.

I am using a Samsung Note 2 and am using a VPS server hosted by 123-reg.

Here is the php script

<?PHP

   $data = file_get_contents('php://input');

echo $data;

   if (!(file_put_contents($_GET['fn'],$data) === FALSE)) echo "File xfer completed."; // file could be empty, though

   else echo "File xfer failed.";

?>

Simon

[Taifun]

you can try to find a solution at stackoverflow.com
http://stackoverflow.com/search?q=[php]+always_populate_raw_post_data
Taifun

[Scott Ferguson]

Have you tried Content-Type image/png or image/jpg etc. for your Headers?
---sfs

[Péter Simon]

hey, can u help me, how can i set the flag always_populate_raw_post_data to on on my server?  if u can please explain this for me like u can explain this to a 5 yrs old child.. :D 

[Scott Ferguson]

You could try this workaround at the top of a php script: http://www.rdlt.com/always_populate_raw_post_data-disabled-heres-a-workaround.html

This person set the flag to on in his script: http://pastebin.com/qvF6PeyR

Example entry in php.ini:

always_populate_raw_post_data = On

---sfs

[Péter Simon]

thanks for the fast reply! now i found an ftp server with anonymus acces, but my app isnt working. can u tell me Scott what is the problem? :)

[Taifun]

there is no ftp component in App Inventor, star issue 1111 https://code.google.com/p/app-inventor-for-android/issues/detail?id=1111

you will need a php script on the server to be able to upload a file

In case you can't set the flag always_populate_raw_post_data = on on your server, you can try my workaround http://puravidaapps.com/postfile.php

 Taifun

[Kevin Darden]

What is the file being written to?  Do I need to create a file like Get Images.php under the public_html directory? Would this then be the file?  Do I need to modify something in the designer to match this? Do I modify something in the code block to match this?

On Wednesday, January 30, 2013 2:05:54 AM UTC-6, Scott Ferguson wrote:

[Scott Ferguson]

I have requested that you attach the current zip project and insert the php script text in your other post. Thanks.

---Scott

[Jon Reneberg]

The file name of the file on your Android device cannot have a space in it, or it will stop at the space.  Some quick code could replace spaces with underscores.

I am also getting the full file name saved with 0kb.  Is this a permission issue?  How would I find out if my Android device is sending the full file rather than just the name?

[Taifun]

I am also getting the full file name saved with 0kb.  Is this a permission issue?  

in the php script try to replace php://input by php://stdin

 How would I find out if my Android device is sending the full file rather than just the name?

the postfile block sends a file and not a text

probably that workaround can help, too: http://puravidaapps.com/postfile.php 

Taifun

[Jon Reneberg]

On Sunday, December 15, 2013 6:02:27 PM UTC-5, Taifun wrote:

I am also getting the full file name saved with 0kb.  Is this a permission issue?  

in the php script try to replace php://input by php://stdin

Hmmm...  Still get the file with 0kb.

When I press the "Post" button, it takes 90 seconds or so before I get the "File xfer completed." message which leads me to believe that the Android app is uploading the full image, but it's somehow not being saved correctly by the server.

[Scott Ferguson]

Are you sure that you have write access to the destination folder?

---

Scott

[Kelson Fox]

Hi Scott

Hope you can help me...

Every time I click to post file, I get "error 1104", then if I click second time the file is sent.

How to get rid of this?

[Scott Ferguson]

I don't know any more than Taifun and Hossein.

---

Scott

[kenma...@gmail.com]

Hi,

We run a coding session for kids here in Ireland.

We are doing an app inventor session to upload images (to a database so the kids can share them). As step one we want to post an image to the directory. However getting zero file sizes. Installed on a local WAMP server or hosted. So we put the whole problem into two files, one to post a file and one to write to remove any possible problems (we have installed the workaround package and fail). Seems that the data from the actual file is just not coming across. 

As its for teach kids, we hoped you would help us :-).

Regards,

M

Ps. outputs on the webbrowser is:

'fakename.jpg

File transfer failed.'

The directory has 'fakename.jpg' with zero bytes.

[Taifun]

as already suggested in this thread:

1. are you able to set the flag always_populate_raw_post_data = on ?
2. in the php script try to replace php://input by php://stdin

3. probably that workaround can help, too: http://puravidaapps.com/postfile.php 

Taifun

---

Trying to push the limits of App Inventor! Snippets and Tutorials from Pura Vida Apps by Taifun.         

[Zoran Kukulj]

Hi,

Are YOU sure That's the folder ,where picture shouuld ne uploaded, in WAMP (on server) is writable?

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[kenma...@gmail.com]

Thank you for the quick reply.

Adding the following line works.

file_put_contents("test.txt","can I write");

This works.

In other words the $data variable seems to be empty.

I have tried the stdin and the input.

Hosting is on 000webhost.com

I cannot change the setting  for the on/off item mention above as we need to use a free hosting server (its a volunteer based training, no charge).

Do the files we attached work for you? Could you recommend an alternative hosting site?

[Taifun]

000webhost.com works fine together with my workaround http://puravidaapps.com/postfile.php 

Taifun

[Zoran Kukulj]

Hi,

000webhost.com worked for me as well, so most likely it is not anything related to hosting free.

--

[no name]

Where do I put the .php file?

[Taifun]

Where do I put the .php file?

in a directory onto your web server, which is accessible from the internet

Taifun

[no name]

Where do I put the .php file?

in a directory onto your web server, which is accessible from the internet

Taifun

 Could this work if I'm using Google app engine?

[Scott Ferguson]

Sorry, I don't know the answer to that.

---

Scott

[Frederick Borcherds]

Hi. Maybe someone can help me. I have been searching thought many documentation without any success. When I post the file to my server in APP Inventor 2 I get a 200 response code back meaning all went well. The responsecontent however give me the whole html coding of the index.php page and the file did not copy to the relevant folder.

I have tried input and stdin without any success. Anybody knows how to fix this?.

PS: Im running phpfox on the webserver

Regards

[Scott Ferguson]

Try puravidaapps.com for examples of posting data.

---

sf

[Edwin Boves]

Hi, I use 000webhost as well. I have tried Taifuns work around uploading PEAR and WideImage(see image) to my server and I still get an error uploading. Do I have to do anything to my server? Please Help.

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[Taifun]

see Q2 here https://puravidaapps.com/postfile.php#q

Taifun

[Sebastián Meza]

I have the same problem dude...did you finally solve this??

[Taifun]

a lot of people solved this, but without knowing more details of your problem we unfortunately can't help

have you seen this https://puravidaapps.com/postfile.php#q

Taifun

[Sebastián Meza]

Finally i can send the images to the server. Only need to know how to obtain the url of the image in the php code to save it in my database.

Finalmente puedo enviar imágenes al servidor. Sólo necesito saber como obtener la url de la imagen recién subida en el código php para guardar esta dirección eb mi base de datos.

Cheers!!

[Taifun]

this depends on the php script

if you use my solution, you will find the images in the same directory as you stored the php script...

Taifun

[Sebastián Meza]

Ok...thanks for your help dude!

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[Brown Bear]

@taifun: Btw I have an error while trying with your method in http://puravidaapps.com/postfile.php. (I am still very newbie here) May you help me? I am using www.000webhost.com

Firstly, I have followed your steps

Install the PEAR package

1. Download the PEAR::PHP_Compat package, I used the file PHP_Compat-1.6.0a3.tgz, which will be stored on your computer
2. Unzip the package (you can use any unzip program, for example 7 zip), a directory PHP_Compat-1.6.0a3 will be created containing another zipped file PHP_Compat-1.6.0a3.tar
3. Unzip that file and another PHP_Compat-1.6.0a3 directory and a file package.xml will be created
4. Copy that inner directory PHP_Compat-1.6.0a3 to your server into the same directory of the postfile.php script. This directory contains the 2 subdirectories Compat and tests and a file package-test.php

But when I want to open http://www.woodywood.host56.com/php/postfile.php?filename=photo1&p=secret I got this error.

I have attached three images for you.

Thank you Taifun.

Really appreciate your help.

[Brown Bear]

Hi all,

I got the answer already. hahahaha thank you all :D.

The answer: I put the folder not properly. I have attached an image for the right one.

@Taifun: How to post an image into http://www.example.com/php/example-page.html using script? Let say, the "example-page.html" is already made in the directory (server).

Thank you

 

[Taifun]

How to post an image into http://www.example.com/php/example-page.html using script? 

your question does not make any sense. A html file is a html file and not a directory. You can post an image only into a directory (and not into a html file)

Taifun

[Brown Bear]

@Taifun: okay, sorry for that. Let me try again hahaha

And btw, Thank you for your post in http://puravidaapps.com/postfile.php for resizing an image. It works very well. Thank you so much. :) 

[farchid honarmand]

Hi Jon, did you find a solution for this issue ? Thanks

Le lundi 16 décembre 2013 00:37:20 UTC+1, Jon Reneberg a écrit :

On Sunday, December 15, 2013 6:02:27 PM UTC-5, Taifun wrote:

I am also getting the full file name saved with 0kb.  Is this a permission issue?  

in the php script try to replace php://input by php://stdin

Hmmm...  Still get the file with 0kb.

When I press the "Post" button, it takes 90 seconds or so before I get the "File xfer completed." message which leads me to believe that the Android app is uploading the full image, but it's somehow not being saved correctly by the server.

[cd tech]

Hi, i use typhoon script to transfert file to my server.

Everything is ok exept the file created is empty 

After readind this post, i change php://input with php://stdin,  but now the file is not tranfered .

Any idea please??

[Rudi van Heerden]

Hi Scott

I get a warning that say: "Warning: file_put_contents(): Filename cannot be empty in ........"

What can be the problem?

Rudi

[Scott Ferguson]

I would need to see a screen shot of your blocks.

It looks like a message from the php server that would indicate that your file name string sent from App Inventor is empty?

---

sf

[Husain]

That's great. How do I change the directory of uploaded files instead of the main directory?

[Scott Ferguson]

I am very rusty on php, but I think it can create a directory on-the-fly if you include the directory name in the path where you intend to store the data.

So instead of 'myfile.dat' you might try 'newfolder/myfile.dat'.

And the new folder would be created in your user directory?

---

sf

[Husain]

Still didn't get it working

here is my code:

  require_once (dirname(__FILE__).'/Compat/Function/file_get_contents.php');
  $data = php_compat_file_get_contents('php://input');
 
  $filename = $_GET['filename'];
  if (file_put_contents($filename,$data)) {
    if (filesize($filename) != 0) {
              // Do whatever if file uploaded

[Scott Ferguson]

So does the subdirectory get created, but is empty?

Is the file created, but is empty?

What are you passing for 'filename'?

Does it contain the subdirectory name?
---

sf

[Tim Carter]

Scott's original example with the change from input to stdin and php.ini file (to change always_populate_raw_post_data = on) working fine here on an open ftp. Many thanks

What changes are needed to the blocks to upload a file to a user/pass protected web server?

Tim

[Scott Ferguson]

See if this helps:

http://puravidaapps.com/snippets.php#2authurl

---

[Tim Carter]

Yes it did !  :)

I had used this before to download but forgotten about it. :(

Thank you Taifun :)

For others:

Encode your username and password to Base 64: http://ostermiller.org/calc/encode.html

using the format: user:password

Add the following blocks before Web1,URL block, and paste your encoded login info after the word Basic in the text block

That's it, should just work.

Thanks guys

Tim

[Scott Ferguson]

Thanks for letting us know how you solved it :-)

---

[Gabriele Cozzolino]

Thank you all for your precious examples, it's working fine but I have one major issue: I can't display back the image saved on the website if it is a high resolution photo (1-2mb file). I mean, it's correctly saved on the cloud, but the image component doesn't shows it, I think for some Android restriction. There's a solution for this? There's a way to resize the image or shrink its size? Thanks

[Scott Ferguson]

Maybe look at:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7881726/setting-size-of-an-image-in-php

For images to store in an app, you can either use some utility app to resize an image on the computer (ie. windows paint) and/or you can compress the image using a utility such as the service tinypng.com

---

[Taifun]

There's a way to resize the image or shrink its size?

my Image Extension can do it...

The App Inventor Extensions are currently in testing. See the announcement for more information and read the App Inventor Extensions document about how to use an App Inventor Extension.

Taifun

---

Trying to push the limits of App Inventor! Snippets, Tutorials and Extensions from Pura Vida Apps by Taifun. 

[Gabriele Cozzolino]

Actually I meant to resize it on the fly before uploading with php.

Taifun I'd love to use your extension, but I'm using Appy builder that sadly doesn't supports extensions yet. Maybe sometime in the near future I hope...

Then, I'm really not good with php, so I doesn't know how to modify the current script to also resize the image, thanks anyway.

[Taifun]

on the server side you might want to take a look into the Wide Image library for php

http://wideimage.sourceforge.net/

Taifun

[Gabriele Cozzolino]

Thank you for point me to the right way, I've done what I need (I'll share the modified script later on), but I have one major issue with the original script: the image file saved on the server is corrupted (grey or red area at the bottom of the photo). On what could this depend? Thanks

[Gabriele Cozzolino]

ps. Original image is not corrupted, also I tried with different ones

[Gabriele Cozzolino]

Sorry for multiple posting, ignore my latest messages, actually it WAS a problem with some of my photos.

Here it is my modified script (WideImage required: http://wideimage.sourceforge.net/), hope it helps somebody else:

if($_GET['p']==$ACCESSKEY){
  // this is the workaround for file_get_contents(...)
  require_once (dirname(__FILE__).'/PHP_Compat-1.6.0a3/Compat/Function/file_get_contents.php');
  require_once (dirname(__FILE__).'/wideimage/WideImage.php');

  $data = php_compat_file_get_contents('php://input');


  $filename = $_GET['filename'];

  $resfilename = $_GET['resfilename'];
  if (file_put_contents($filename,$data)) {
 WideImage::load($filename)->resize('50%')->saveToFile($resfilename);
    if (filesize($filename) != 0 && filesize($resfilename) != 0)  {
      echo "File transfer completed.";
    } else {
      header("HTTP/1.0 400 Bad Request");
      echo "File is empty.";
    }
  } else {
    header("HTTP/1.0 400 Bad Request");
    echo "File transfer failed.";
  }
} else {
  header("HTTP/1.0 400 Bad Request");
  echo "Access denied";     //reports if accesskey is wrong
}

[Gabriele Cozzolino]

Consider that I'm still using original method to upload photos, I used WideImage library in combination to save a second resized copy of the file. So, also original method fails. 

But as I said I think it depends of some of my photos: somehow some of that results corrupted after the upload, but others are fine. It's not a random issue, this is happening repeatedly with same photos.

2016-06-04 23:02 GMT+02:00 Taifun <taifu...@gmail.com>:

can you upload the image successfully without using that library?

Taifun

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