unlink not working

[Local Hero]

I have 100's of images that users upload onto my site. I have a page to view them and next to each image I want a DELETE button or text to delete the image from my server. Below is the code the has the file name, then DELETE and then the image on the next line.

PHP Code:

$handle=opendir("./content/uploaded");
                  {
while (($file = readdir($handle))!==false) 
{ 
 $file_list .=  $file . " <a href='imagecheck2.php?delete=/content/uploaded/" . $file . "'> DELETE </a><br><a href='./content/uploaded/" . $file . "' target='blank'> <img src=./content/uploaded/" . $file . " width=400></a><br>"; }

closedir($handle);
echo "$file_list";
    } 


The DELETE makes the site go to http ://www.mysite.com/imagecheck2.php?delete=/content/uploaded/redball.jpg

PHP Code:

  if(isset($_GET['delete'])) 
{ 
   $delete_file = $_GET['delete']; 
  unlink("$delete_file"); 
{ if(unlink( $delete_file))
   { echo ("$delete_file has been deleted");}
   else {echo( "unable to delete $delete_file");}
}
} 


I keep getting "unable to delete http://www.mysite.com/imagecheck2.php?delete=/content/uploaded/redball.jpg"

I can't find a free FTP software that will let me delete the image files where I can view them easily so I'm trying to get this to work instead. Nothing so far today, Any help is appreciated.

[tangoforce]

Originally Posted by Local Hero

I keep getting "unable to delete http://www.mysite.com/imagecheck2.php?delete=/content/uploaded/redball.jpg"

Thats not a complete error message. It's lacking the other details which I would suggest you post. It's almost certainly a file path issue but from what you've posted so far it looks like you're trying to delete the file via a url using the http protocol and that simply can't be done.

Originally Posted by Local Hero

I can't find a free FTP software that will let me delete the image files where I can view them easily so I'm trying to get this to work instead. Nothing so far today, Any help is appreciated.

Google filezilla. Thats a free FTP program and usually turns up easily in google so you can't have searched very well If you mean you want one that will preview the images via FTP, it doesn't exist. Why? Because it would have to download every image in order for you to preview it.

[Local Hero]

That's the message I get because that's what I programed the code to say when it failed.

Are you saying that I cannot delete a file, or delete it from the URL? I can't figure out another way to delete the file from a button/link.

I did look at Filezilla, but I wanted to view images. I understand what you're saying, so I wanted to build this page for myself to remove images that I'm finished with.

Is there a better way to unlink the file with a button/link next to the image?

[tangoforce]

Originally Posted by Local Hero

That's the message I get because that's what I programed the code to say when it failed.

Ah ok, I had it in my head it was a PHP error message. Right in that case you're definitely using a url which is good to know.

Originally Posted by Local Hero

Are you saying that I cannot delete a file, or delete it from the URL?

No of course you can't. That would be a MASSIVE security breach wouldn't it. Imagine if I could go to your website and just delete every page using a php script on my server and the url of your pages. That is the very point of http - it's pretty much a request and response protocol and thats it.

There are apparently some http servers that will allow a delete request but I've never used one, seen one or actually heard of anyone insane enough to run one. I would imagine there are uses for them but for general website hosting it's not used for the reasons above.

Originally Posted by Local Hero

I can't figure out another way to delete the file from a button/link.

You need to use a local file system path instead.

Say your script is in your public_html folder and your image file is image.jpg and it's also in your public_html folder then you would:
unlink('image.jpg');

If it's in public_html/images/ then:
unlink('images/image.jpg');

and so on and so forth.
../ means up one level.
./ means this directory

Hope that helps (PS off to bed now so if you've anymore questions someone else will need to answer).

[Local Hero]

Got it! It makes sense now why you wouldn't want it to delete files from HTTP. At the time, it seemed like it could work Thanks!