Network Communication Toolkit for Windows Developers

FTP Upload Download component for PHP for Windows

ActiveSocket is a Network Communication component for Windows Developers. It runs on any 32 bit and 64 bit Windows Platform, incl. Windows 7, Windows 2008, Windows 2003, Windows 2000, Windows Vista and Windows XP.
It features many IP protocols, incl.: SSH (Secure Shell), RSH (Remote Shell), HTTP(s), FTP, ICMP Ping, NTP, SNMP v1/v2c (Get,GetNext,Set), SNMP MIB translation, SNMP Trap Sender, SNMP Trap Receiver, Telnet, DNS, TCP, UDP, IP-to-Country, Wake-On-LAN and more. Samples are included many popular development platforms, incl. Visual C# .NET, Visual Basic .NET, ASP .NET, Visual Basic, Visual C/C++, ASP, Java, Javascript, PHP, Borland Delphi, Borland C++ Builder, ColdFusion.

ActiveSocket can be well integrated into PHP environments. This document describes how the ActiveSocket FtpServer object can be integrated into PHP code.

The most important functions of the FtpServer object are:

  • Connect - connect to the (remote) FTP server on port 21 or any alternate port;
  • Disconnect - to diconnect after a connect call;
  • GetCurrentDir - retrieve the current directory;
  • ChangeDir - change the current directory;
  • CreateDir - create a new directory;
  • RenameDir - rename a directory;
  • DeleteDir - delete a directory;
  • FindFile - find a specific file in the current directory;
  • FindFirstFile - iterate over all files in the current directory; find the first file;
  • FindNextFile - iterate over all files in the current directory; find the next file;
  • RenameFile - rename a file in the current directory;
  • DeleteFile - delete a file in the current directory;
  • GetFile - get (download) a file, either using binary transfer or ASCII transfer;
  • PutFile - put (upload) a file, either using binary transfer or ASCII transfer;

Step 1: Download and install the ActiveSocket Toolkit

Download the ActiveSocket Toolkit from the ActiveXperts Download Site and start the installation. The installation guides you through the installation process.

Step 2: Create a html form

To connect to an ftp server using php we need to collect the login information from the user, then connect to the server and then view the content

First of all we need to collect some information from the user. Like the username, the password and ofcourse the server we are going to connect to. Perhaps you'd like to change the directory or/and create a logfile at logon. You can make the form look like this.

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

Step 3: Create the ActiveSocket object

If you wat to use ActiveSocket Ftp in php, you need to create an object. In php this means you need to create a new COM. The following code shows how to do this. 

<?

//create the ActiveSocket FTP object
$activeFtp = new com("ActiveXperts.FtpServer");

?>

Step 4: Proces the information

Now we need to connect to the server and display the content of the server. In this sample we're working with a form. If the form is submitted, we're passing The following code shows how to do this: 

<?

//create the ActiveSocket FTP object
$activeFtp = new com("ActiveXperts.FtpServer");

if(isset($_GET['method'])){

  //set the logfile:
  $activeFtp->logfile = $_POST["logfile"];

  //connect the server
  $activeFtp->connect($_POST["server"], $_POST["username"], $_POST["password"]);

	//change directory
	$activeFtp->ChangeDir($_POST["dir"]);
	
  //display the table in witch we are going to present our information
  echo "<table>";
  echo "  <tr>";
  echo "    <td colspan=1 class=header>";
  echo "Size:";
  echo "    </td>";
  echo "    <td class=header>";
  echo "Filename:";
  echo "    </td>";
  echo "  </tr>";

  //get the firstfile (if the first file is fetched, move on to the next untill there is no next file, then an error will occure)	
  $files = $activeFtp->FindFirstFile();

  //get the errors and descriptions
	$error = $activeFtp->Lasterror;
	$description = $activeFtp->GetErrorDescription($activeFtp->Lasterror);
	
  //if the filename was successfully fetched, echo the filename and the filesize
  while($activeFtp->Lasterror == 0){
    echo "  <tr>";
    echo "    <td class=size>";
    //check if the file is a directory		
    if($files->isDirectory == -1){
      //if the file is a directory: echo "Directory"		
      echo "Directory";
    }
    else{
      //if the file isn't a directory, echo the filesize		
      echo $files->size . " Bytes";
    }
    echo "    </td>";
    echo "    <td class=filename>";
    echo $files->name . "<br>";
    echo "    </td>";	
    echo "  </tr>";
		
		//find the next file, and display it again..
    $files = $activeFtp->FindNextFile;		
  }
	
	//close the table tag
	echo "</table>";
	echo "<br>";

//close the if statement
}


//create a table and display the errors that have occured
echo "<table>";
echo "  <tr>";
echo "    <td colspan=1 class=header>";
echo "ErrorNo.:";
echo "    </td>";
echo "    <td class=header>";
echo "Error description:";
echo "    </td>";
echo "  </tr>";
echo "  <tr>";
echo "    <td class=size>";
echo $error;
echo "    </td>";
echo "    <td class=filename>";
echo $description;
echo "    </td>";
echo "  </tr>";
echo "</table>";

?>

There are many working samples included with the product. You can also find them on the ActiveXperts FTP site: ftp.activexperts-labs.com/samples/asocket.