PHP - reading folder, all subfolders, and files in subfolders

Question

I have a folder named "inspections" which has a number of subfolders named "location 1", "location 2", "location 3", etc. each with around 10-20 .png images in it.

What I am trying to do, is to read the directories of the "inspections" folder, and then read all the image files in each of the folders before returning them as a gallery on my index.php site. The problem is that I get no error message but the script doesnt return anything. I believe the problem is with generating the $files variable for each subfolder as I deploy the same script for reading folder content on another site.

Perhaps someone can point me in the right direction?

    <?php
$dir = './inspections/';
if ($handle = opendir($dir)) 
{
    $blacklist = array('.', '..', 'default', 'default.php', 'desc.txt');
    while (false !== ($folder = readdir($handle))) 
    {
        if (!in_array($folder, $blacklist)) 
        {
            if (file_exists($dir . $folder . '/desc.txt')) 
                {
                    while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) 
                    {
                        if (!in_array($file, $blacklist)) 
                        {
                            $chain = file_get_contents($dir . $folder . '/chain.txt');
                            $website = file_get_contents($dir . $folder . '/website.txt');
                            $location = file_get_contents($dir . $folder . '/location.txt');
                            $desc = file_get_contents($dir . $folder . '/desc.txt', NULL, NULL, 0, 250) . '...';
                            echo "
                                <!-- Post -->
                                <div class=\"post\">
                                  <div class=\"user-block\">
                                    <img class=\"img-circle img-bordered-sm\" src=\"../dist/img/logo/logo_".$chain."\" alt=\"\">
                                        <span class=\"username\">
                                          <a href=\"".$website."\" target=\"_blank\">".$folder."</a>
                                        </span>
                                    <span class=\"description\"><i class=\"fa fa-map-pin\"></i> ".$location." - Posted on ". $date . "</span>
                                  </div>
                                  <!-- /.user-block -->
                                  <p>".$desc."</p>
                                  <div class=\"lightBoxGallery\">
                                  <a href=\"".$dir . $folder . "/".$file."\" title=\"".$file."\" data-gallery=\"\"><img src=\"".$dir . $folder . "/".$file."\" style=\"height:100px; width:100px;\"></a>
                                  </div>
                            ";
                        }
                    }
                }
        }
    }
    closedir($handle);
}
?>

EDIT: following @JazZ suggestion, I have adjusted the code and it works well now, however, assuming that one does not want to display the resized pictures itself, but rather thumbnails stored in a subfolder (eg. ./location1/thumbs/), how would I go about this?

<?php                   
$dir = './inspections/';
if ($handle = opendir($dir)) {
    $blacklist = array('.', '..', 'default', 'default.php', 'desc.txt');
    while (false !== ($folder = readdir($handle))) {
        if (!in_array($folder, $blacklist)) {

                    echo "
                        <!-- Post -->
                        <div class=\"post\">
                          <div class=\"user-block\">
                            <img class=\"img-circle img-bordered-sm\" src=\"../dist/img/logo/gallery_icon_".$chain.".jpg\" alt=\"\">
                                <span class=\"username\">
                                  <a href=\"".$website."\" target=\"_blank\">".$hotel_name."</a>".$status."
                                </span>
                            <span class=\"description\"><i class=\"fa fa-map-pin\"></i> ".$location." - Posted on ".date('jS F, Y - H:m', strtotime($posted_on))."</span>
                          </div>
                          <!-- /.user-block -->

                          <p>".$desc."</p>
                          <div class=\"lightBoxGallery\">
                    ";

                    foreach (glob($dir . $folder . "/*.jpg") as $filename) {
                        echo "
                            <a href=\"".$filename."\" title=\"\" data-gallery=\"\"><img src=\"".$filename."\" style=\"height:100px; width:100px;\"></a>";
                    }
                    echo "</div>
                        </div>
                        <!-- /. POST -->

                        ";

        }
    }
    closedir($handle);
}
?>

Answer 1

I think your issue comes from here :

while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) // it reads again the same directory as it did in the first while loop

Try to replace it with

if ($sub_handle = opendir($dir . $folder)) {
    while (false !== ($file = readdir($sub_handle))) {
        ...
    }
    closedir($sub_handle);
}

Also, in your case, I would use php glob() function

See a working example for your case :

$dir = './inspections/';
if ($handle = opendir($dir)) {
    $blacklist = array('.', '..', 'default', 'default.php', 'desc.txt');
    while (false !== ($folder = readdir($handle))) {
        if (!in_array($folder, $blacklist)) {
            foreach (glob($dir . $folder . "/*.png") as $filename) {
                echo "$filename was found !";
                echo "\r\n";
            }
        }
    }
    closedir($handle);
}

Output :

./inspections/location_4/img_1.png was found !
./inspections/location_4/img_2.png was found !
./inspections/location_4/img_3.png was found !
./inspections/location_4/img_4.png was found !
./inspections/location_4/img_5.png was found !
./inspections/location_4/img_6.png was found !
./inspections/location_3/img_1.png was found !
./inspections/location_3/img_2.png was found !
./inspections/location_3/img_3.png was found !
./inspections/location_3/img_4.png was found !
./inspections/location_3/img_5.png was found !
./inspections/location_3/img_6.png was found !
./inspections/location_2/img_1.png was found !
./inspections/location_2/img_2.png was found !
./inspections/location_2/img_3.png was found !
./inspections/location_2/img_4.png was found !
./inspections/location_2/img_5.png was found !
./inspections/location_2/img_6.png was found !
./inspections/location_1/img_1.png was found !
./inspections/location_1/img_2.png was found !
./inspections/location_1/img_3.png was found !
./inspections/location_1/img_4.png was found !
./inspections/location_1/img_5.png was found !
./inspections/location_1/img_6.png was found !

EDIT

To loop in the /inspections/location1/thumbs/ directories, this would work :

foreach (glob($dir . $folder . "/thumbs/*.png") as $filename) {
    echo "$filename was found !";
    echo "\r\n";
}

RE-EDIT

To glob multiple folders with the glob() function, your code should look like :

foreach (glob($dir.$folder."{/thumbs/*.png,/*.png}", GLOB_BRACE) as $filename) {
    echo "$filename was found !";
    echo "\r\n";
}

Answer 2

Perhaps the Function below helps. It is also somewhat commented. It scans a directory recursively (in this case, extracting image files from each directory/sub-directory).

<?php

    $rootPath   = './inspections/';
    $regex      = "#(\.png$)|(\.jpg$)|(\.jpeg$)|(\.tiff$)|(\.gif$)#";


    /**
     * @param string $directory    => DIRECTORY TO SCAN
     * @param string $regex        => REGULAR EXPRESSION TO BE USED IN MATCHING FILE-NAMES
     * @param string $get          => WHAT DO YOU WANT TO GET? 'dir'= DIRECTORIES, 'file'= FILES, 'both'=BOTH FILES+DIRECTORIES
     * @param bool   $useFullPath  => DO YOU WISH TO RETURN THE FULL PATH TO THE FOLDERS/FILES OR JUST THEIR BASE-NAMES?
     * @param array  $dirs         => LEAVE AS IS: USED DURING RECURSIVE TRIPS
     * @return array
     */
    function scanDirRecursive($directory, $regex=null, $get="file", $useFullPath=false,  &$dirs=[], &$files=[]) {
        $iterator               = new DirectoryIterator ($directory);
        foreach($iterator as $info) {
            $fileDirName        = $info->getFilename();

            if ($info->isFile () && !preg_match("#^\..*?#", $fileDirName)) {
                if($get == 'file' || $get == 'both'){
                    if($regex) {
                        if(preg_match($regex, $fileDirName)) {
                            if ($useFullPath) {
                                $files[] = $directory . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $fileDirName;
                            }
                            else {
                                $files[] = $fileDirName;
                            }
                        }
                    }else{
                        if($useFullPath){
                            $files[]   = $directory . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $fileDirName;
                        }else{
                            $files[]   = $fileDirName;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }else if ($info->isDir()  && !$info->isDot()) {
                $fullPathName   = $directory . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $fileDirName;
                if($get == 'dir' || $get == 'both') {
                    $dirs[]     = ($useFullPath) ? $fullPathName : $fileDirName;
                }
                scanDirRecursive($fullPathName, $regex, $get, $useFullPath, $dirs, $files);
            }
        }

        if($get == 'dir') {
            return $dirs;
        }else if($get == 'file'){
            return $files;
        }
        return ['dirs' => $dirs, 'files' => $files];
    }

    $images    = scanDirRecursive($rootPath, $regex, 'file', true);
    var_dump($images);