Deletion in MySQL

Question

I am using PHP and MySQL to create a drop box system. The problem I am facing is that I need to delete a folder and delete all the folders and files inside it. It works fine with two folders but when I have 3 folders it does not delete them. Below is the code in PHP. please help me.

<?php
session_start(); 
require 'connection.php';
$folderid = $_GET['folderid'];


function rrmdir($dir) {  
if (is_dir($dir)) {
$objects = scandir($dir);
foreach ($objects as $object) {
  if ($object != "." && $object != "..") {
    if (filetype($dir."/".$object) == "dir") 
       rrmdir($dir."/".$object); 
    else unlink   ($dir."/".$object);
  }
}
reset($objects);
rmdir($dir);
 }
  $delete = mysql_query("DELETE FROM file WHERE id='$folderid'");
}




if($folderid != ""){
$result = mysql_query("SELECT file.path FROM ftpdb.file WHERE ftpdb.file.fileID =         $folderid");
$qry = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
$dir = $qry['path'];
//Calls a function which deletes all the files and folder in a pathy specified above
rrmdir($dir);
//Delete From database files and folders if the folderID is not null 
$delete = mysql_query("DELETE FROM file WHERE fileID='$folderid' OR parentFolder = '$folderid'");
$deleteFiles = mysql_query("DELETE FROM file_files WHERE folder_id = '$folderid'");
$_SESSION['error'] = "Folder has been deleted";
header("location: client.php");
}else{
$_SESSION['error'] = "Error occured please try again";
header("location: client.php");
}
?>

This is the database I have managed to delete test folder when I delete home but not testing which is in tests. I think that the sql statement is incorrect

Answer 1

You only have one value of $folderid. Imagine if rrmdir recurses very deep, removing lots of folders. You cannot catch them all by removing $folderid and things with $folderid as the parent. That only goes one level deep!

Your SQL code will need to go inside rrmdir, so that you can also remove things from the database recursively.

Then to remove all the folders you will either need to:

• Find the ID of every folder. (You could pull this from SQL when looping the children, and pass it as a second argument to rrmdir.)
• Or, find the record to remove by its pathname, not its ID.

I also note that your last record has two slashes at //testing. This will make it harder to find a match by path! I would recommend flattening paths like that before they enter the database!

I am also thinking of making my own Dropbox, but I was planning to use something like unison, driven by a couple of shellscripts.

Answer 2

I am sure you would want to find it out by yourself. So let me just provide you with an appropriate google link: https://www.google.de/search?q=mysql+recursion

If you want to know how to convert an arbitrarily sophisticated select statement into a delete statement:

DELETE FROM table WHERE id IN (SELECT id FROM table)

Answer 3

Try this

$result = mysql_query("SELECT file.path FROM ftpdb.file WHERE ftpdb.file.fileID ='$folderid'");