Saving a document on another server

Question

So I'm using TCPDF to generate a pdf file and trying save the generated document on a folder residing on another server using

$pdf->Output('\\\210.24.39.6\salesorder\salesorder.pdf', 'F');

And I got the error

Warning: fopen(): remote host file access not supported,

I am able to access the path and folder remotely from the server machine. Does anyone know why?

I would suggest you, to use ftp_* functions or whatever protocoll you preffer to store the pdf file on your remote server instead of outputting it via TCPDF. — Daniele D, Apr 21 '15 at 14:37
How do I configure the ftp method? Do I have to configure the other server? — user3543512, Apr 21 '15 at 15:05

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 21 '15 at 14:44

You can mount share as a drive on Windows or to a folder on linux servers, than you will work with it like a local file system.

For windows:

net use \\210.24.39.6\salesorder\

For linux (don't forget to create folder salesorder):

mount –t cifs 210.24.39.6:/salesorder /fullpath/salesorder –o username=test,workgroup=test

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:57

One possible solution is scp, which stand for Secured Copy.

It's syntax is the following:
```
scp /local/dir/file.pdf root@destination.net:target/dir/file.pdf
```
It copies file over SSH and requires SSH key to be authorized on destination server to omit password request.
Another solution is to copy file using FTP protocol.
Or set allow_url_fopen = 1, but than read abouth the risks of doing that here and here. Shortly: it is not secured.

! Options 1 and 2 require that file is generated/saved on source location and that copied to another/target location.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 29 '19 at 22:56

Another option besides scp (which is a good option) is to generate the PDF locally, then copy it to the IP or UNC name. an implementation I used is below:

1) generate the pdf to your local drive. (wherever that is for you)

$pdf->Output($filename, 'F');

2) use the built in php function to copy that file to your remote drive. I built a function to do that as I wanted to also do some checking, to make sure it could proceed without error.

function CheckDirectoryExists($path) {
    if (!file_exists($path)) {          
        mkdir($path, 0777, true); 
    }
    return file_exists($path);
}

function CopyFile($file, $to_file) {
    if (!file_exists($file)) {
        return -1;
    }
    if (!file_exists($to_file)) {
        $path = '';
        $explodedPath = explode(dirSep, $to_file);
        for ($i = 0; $i < (sizeof($explodedPath) - 1); $i++) {
            $path .= $explodedPath[$i] . dirSep;
        }
        CheckDirectoryExists($path);
    } else {
        unlink($to_file);
    }
    return copy($file, $to_file);
}

this should work, I'm using the UNC name instead of the IP address on my end in the init.php I have setup.

Saving a document on another server

3 Answers3