How do I save a .csv file to my server?

Hello,

I am working on a little "game" that I'll use for my research on Japanese language. This "game" takes the form of a survey in which Japanese speaker will create abbreviations of pairs of loanwords.

I made a draft of the game that works pretty well (even though it may not be very elegant. I'm still a beginner at programming).

The thing is, I'm going to upload it to a server (from the lab where I work) and of course I want to collect the answers of the participants on the server. Basically, all the data I need is in the .csv file the browser download at the end of the game. So I need to get that .csv file to be saved on the server instead of the user's computer. I thought the AJAX object might help, but it seems more complicated than I expected. So I'm asking for your help on that.

Here is the .capx. Note that I used the BHT smart random plugin :

drive.google.com/open

Another, less important question :

The abbreviations I am studying are made of two words (or "constituants", hereafter C1 and C2). In the draft, I only included 8 C1s and 2 sets of 8 C2s. Thus, you can see 24 text instances with different instance variables on the main layout, but outside the window. In the final version, I will have 120 C1s and 2 sets of 120C2s. All the informations about those C1s/C2s are all ready in a Excel file. So I would like to know if there is any way not to create manually each instance of text, or even not using text instances at all. Basically my question is "do you know an elegant way to put all informations on my C1s/C2s in the game" ?

Anyway, it's not gonna take too much time to do it manually, so my question is more about learning new stuff than anything.

Zakeru

I finished my tutorial!

scirra.com/tutorials/9704/sending-data-from-construct-23-to-google-spreadsheet

I think you should be able to send the entire dictionary as JSON to the spreadsheet. Make sure to use URLEncode(Dict1.AsJSON)

There may be a size limit though, when I tried to send a dictionary with 200 keys, I got an error. 20 keys work fine..

Hi

If you want to save the data as a file to your server, here is the php script.

<?php

$myfile = fopen("text.txt", "w") or die("Unable to open file!");

$text = $_POST['my_data'];

fwrite($myfile, $text);

fclose($myfile);

?>

You have to create a file first on your server, I have used "text.txt"

Then you send your text from Construct as a variable, I have used "my_data", but it could be anything.

From Construct your Ajax Post would look like this.

This refers to your php file, which in this case I have called it texttest.php, which you will have to put on your server in the same directory.

Hope this helps.

Yes! Thanks! I wanted to do this kind of things at first.

But if I have a single .txt file, won't every player erase the data from the previous player? Is there a way to prevent this ? Have several files ? Have each player's data be written after the previous player's data in the same file?

Anyway. I'm satisfied with my e-mail solution. I'm just asking out of curiosity. So if you don't already know the solution, don't think about it too much :)

You could have a new file for each user file.

Just post the data of the required file name.

Example

<?php

$myfile = fopen("$user.txt", "w") or die("Unable to open file!");

$text = $_POST['my_data'];

$user = $_POST['my_user'];

fwrite($myfile, $text);

fclose($myfile);

?>

This will create a .txt file if it doesn't exist, and will be called whatever the user inputs as it's name.

$myfile = fopen("$user.txt", "w") or die("Unable to open file!");

$user = $_POST['my_user'];

I haven't tried it, you may have to use.

$myfile = fopen($user.".txt", "w") or die("Unable to open file!");

So with your second method, I do not need to create an empty text file on my server right?

For some reason I can't make it work. I think it's because php files don't have the authorization to write on my server or something like that.

I will check that with the I.T guy of my lab and try again ^^

Thanks anyway !

Just out of curiosity. What part of the php code deals with the creation of a new file if there is no matching file name on the server ? Is it just how "fopen" works ? Then why do you need to create in advance a text.txt file with the first method ?

Its the "w" parameter

$myfile = fopen("text.txt", "w") or die("Unable to open file!");

"r" read: Open file for input operations. The file must exist.

"w" write: Create an empty file for output operations. If a file with the same name already exists, its contents are discarded and the file is treated as a new empty file.

"a" append: Open file for output at the end of a file. Output operations always write data at the end of the file, expanding it. Repositioning operations (fseek, fsetpos, rewind) are ignored. The file is created if it does not exist.

"r+" read/update: Open a file for update (both for input and output). The file must exist.

"w+" write/update: Create an empty file and open it for update (both for input and output). If a file with the same name already exists its contents are discarded and the file is treated as a new empty file.

"a+" append/update: Open a file for update (both for input and output) with all output operations writing data at the end of the file. Repositioning operations (fseek, fsetpos, rewind) affects the next input operations, but output operations move the position back to the end of file. The file is created if it does not exist.

So should write a new file to the server, if it does not exist.