Accessing a Windows Share using PHP

Question

I need to access an Excel file on a Windows Share using PHP but seem to be running into what looks like an authentication issue.

I'm using PHP-ExcelReader to open and read the file. Works fine on my local machine but the server I'm putting it on doesn't have the rights to access this share, and so its telling me that the path is unreadable!

I'm not even sure the path I have for accessing this share is correct:

    $file_to_include = "\\\\10.9.8.7\depts$\ExcelFile.xls";

But it works on my machine, as I said so I'm happy with that.

Is there any way I can add my credentials in here somewhere?

Answer 1

Path \\10.9.8.7\depts$\ExcelFile.xls must be locally accessible to the client, since PHP has no SMB support.

EDIT: At least not natively, try smb4php

Answer 2

Your path is correct.

One thing you could try is to share the drive on the server, then map the shared drive on each users computer (make sure they are all the same drive letter, or name), or just your computer. If it's not too many, the users computers would be better, in case you're out, or forget to authenticate. This way, when the user authenticates, it opens the drive up. You can then call the drive via something like:

$file_to_include = '\\\\'.$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'].'\mappedDrive\file.xls';