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Flex Uploader / Viewer Component Part 2 - Setting up the PHP

This is the second post in a series of 3 on how to make a Flex uploader.
For the first post, go here.
For the third post, go here.

You can download the php file here.
You can download the flex project file here.
A demo of the file is here.

Setting up the PHP

Flex needs a server-based back-end to handle where files go on the server. The PHP file here is what it uses. First, we need to make sure that the DOCUMENT_ROOT global variable is set.

if ( ! isset($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] ) )
  $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] = str_replace( '\\', '/', substr(     $_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'], 0, 0-strlen($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']) ) );

We then handle whatever the REQUEST['action'] variable tells us to do - this is one of the variables that was set in Flex. The code below moves the temp file to a known location, and reports back any errors.

switch($_REQUEST['action']) {
	case "upload":

		$file_temp = $_FILES['file']['tmp_name'];
		$file_name = $_FILES['file']['name'];

		$file_path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']. '/'. $_REQUEST['path'];

		//move the temporary file to a known storage area
		$filestatus = move_uploaded_file($file_temp,$file_path . $file_name);

		if(!$filestatus) {
			$success = "false";
			array_push($errors,"Upload failed. Please try again.");
		}
		break;

Finally, the php returns any errors to flex:

return_result($success,$errors,$data);

function return_result($success,$errors,$data) {
	echo("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>");
	echo ("<results>");
	echo ("<success>".$success."</success>");
	echo ($data);
	echo ("<error>".$errors."</error>");
	echo ("</results>");
}

You also need to make sure that you allow PHP write access to the directory that you are trying to write to. I use Komodo to debug this PHP and I advise you set up a PHP debug environment also.