PHP script unable to write in root directory

Question

I have a PHP script to generate a sitemap: http://w3db.org/sitemapx.php

It's job is to make the sitemap1.xml file in the root directory, but it just shows the number of urls added.

It does not give an error. The script is OK but there is something wrong with permissions. I tried it using 777 but it is still not able to create the sitemap1.xml file in root directory.

sitemapx.php:

<?php

  global $handle, $counter, $file_number, $filename ,$countx;

  $counter = 0;
  $countx = 0;
  $file_number = 1;

  include('config.php');    

  $con = mysql_connect("$db_host","$db_username","$db_password");
  mysql_select_db("$database", $con);

  $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table_name");
  while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
    $domx = $row["domain"];
    $url = "http://www.w3db.org/www.".$domx."";
    write_xml($url);
    $countx++;
  }
  fwrite($handle,"</urlset>\n");

  echo "Url to Sitemap Added : ".$countx;

  function write_xml($url,$priority = 0.7) {
    global $handle, $counter, $file_number, $filename;
    if ($counter >= 50000) {
      $file_number++;
      $counter = 0;
      fwrite($handle,"</urlset>\n");
      fclose($handle);
    }
    if ($counter == 0) {
      $filename = "sitemap" . $file_number . ".xml";
      $handle = fopen($filename,"a");
      fwrite($handle,'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>' . "\n");
      fwrite($handle,'<urlset xmlns="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.9">'."\n");
    }
    if ($url != "" && $url != "END") {
      fwrite($handle,"\t <url>\n");
      fwrite($handle,"\t\t<loc>$url</loc>\n");
      fwrite($handle,"\t\t<priority>$priority</priority>\n");
      fwrite($handle,"\t</url>\n");
    }
    if ($url == "") {
      fwrite($handle,"</urlset>\n");
      fclose($handle);
    }
    $counter++;
  }

?>

Answer 1

Here is your script written in a tidier way, with more error handling. Try it out and see if it fixes the problem, and if not, what the error message you see is.

<?php

  // Calling "global" in the global scope is pointless - anything declared here is already implicitly global

  // Rather than importing global variables into a function, it's better to delare them in the global scope
  // and pass them as arguments if necessary. I've also separated the logic into three functions.
  function open_xml ($fileName) {
    // Opens a file pointer for the XML document and writes the header
    // We should use 'w' as the mode here, not 'a'. If you append to the file, you'll create invalid XML
    // documents with multiple root nodes when the file already exists. 'w' will overwrite it.
    return (($fp = fopen($fileName, 'w')) && fwrite($fp, "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" ?>\n<urlset xmlns=\"http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.9\">\n")) ? $fp : FALSE;
  }
  function write_xml ($fp, $url, $priority = 0.7) {
    // Writes a <url> element to the XML file
    return is_resource($fp) && fwrite($fp, "\t<url>\n\t\t<loc>$url</loc>\n\t\t<priority>$priority</priority>\n\t</url>\n");
  }
  function close_xml ($fp) {
    // Writes the footer for the XML document and closes the file pointer
    return is_resource($fp) && fwrite($fp, "</urlset>\n") && fclose($fp);
  }

  // Get config
  include('config.php');    

  // Connect to MySQL and select database
  if ((!$con = mysql_connect($db_host, $db_username, $db_password)) || !mysql_select_db("$database", $con))
    exit("Unable to initialise MySQL: ".mysql_error());

  // Open an XML file
  $fileNumber = 1;
  $fileName = "sitemap{$fileNumber}.xml";
  $filePath = realpath($fileName);
  if (!$fp = open_xml($fileName))
    exit("Unable to open '$fileName' ($filePath) for writing!");

  // Get database results
  $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table_name", $con);

  // Loop the results and write them to file
  for ($current = 0, $total = 0; $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result); $current++, $total++) {

    if ($current >= 50000) {

      // Close the current file
      if (!close_xml($fp))
        exit("Unable to close '$fileName' ($filePath)");

      // Open a new file
      $fileNumber++;
      $fileName = "sitemap{$fileNumber}.xml";
      $filePath = realpath($fileName);
      if (!$fp = open_xml($fileName))
        exit("Unable to open '$fileName' ($filePath) for writing");

      // Reset the counter
      $current = 0;

    }

    // Write this URL to file
    if (!write_xml($fp, "http://www.w3db.org/www.{$row['domain']}"))
      exit("Unable to write to '$fileName' ($filePath)");

  }

  // Close off the XML file
  if (!close_xml($fp))
    exit("Unable to close '$fileName' ($filePath)");

  echo "URLs added to Sitemap : $total";