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I'm designing a web application that can be customized based on which retail location the end user is coming from. For example, if a user is coming from a store called Farmer's Market, there may be customized content or extra links available to that user, specific to that particular store. file_exists() is used to determine if there are any customized portions of the page that need to be imported.

Up until now, we've been using a relatively insecure method, in which the item ID# and the store are simply passed in as GET parameters, and the system knows to apply them to each of the links within the page. However, we're switching to a reversible hash method, in which the store and item number are encrypted (to look something like "gd651hd8h41dg0h81"), and the pages simply decode them and assign the store and ID variables.

Since then, however, we've been running into an error that Googling extensively hasn't found me an answer for. There are several similar blocks of code, but they all look something like this:

$buttons_first = "../stores/" . $store . "/buttons_first.php";
if(file_exists($buttons_first))
    include($buttons_first);
(The /stores/ directory is actually in the directory above the working one, hence the ../)
Fairly straightforward. But despite working fine when a regular ID and store is passed in, using the encrypted ID throws this error for each one of those similar statements:
  
Warning: file_exists() expects parameter 1 to be a valid path, string given in [url removed] on line 11
I've had the script spit back the full URL, and it appears to be assigning $store correctly. I'm running PHP 5.4.11 on 1&1 hosting (because I know they have some abnormalities in the way their servers work), if that helps any.
                What is the result of var_dump($store)? Perhaps it contains reserved characters that would constitute an invalid path (?, * etc.). Here's a list of potentially reserved characters.
– cmbuckley
                Feb 13, 2013 at 15:39
                "../stores/shoprite/buttons_first.php" is the one I'm toying with.  var_dump($store) results in string(28) "shoprite" in that case.
– Sean
                Feb 13, 2013 at 15:43
                Ok, now the really silly question - you're 100% sure the file exists at that relative path? One thing you could try (to discount it's not a file_exists problem) is to hard-code the value to a file you know exists and see if the function succeeds.
– Raad
                Feb 13, 2013 at 15:48
                The file doesn't always exist there, hence the check, but I explicitly created one to check. It works and loads it correctly with the regular ID, but not if I use the encrypted one (they use different $_GET variables, so they don't interfere with one another).
– Sean
                Feb 13, 2013 at 15:53
I got the same error before but I don't know if this solution of mine works on your problem you need to remove the "\0" try replace it:
$cleaned = strval(str_replace("\0", "", $buttons_first));
it worked on my case.
                Still getting the same error, it actually was that way originally and I'd changed it in hopes that would fix the problem.
– Sean
                Feb 13, 2013 at 15:38
                I believe that having a value in your global config file containing the absolute path of the application would save you lots of troubles..
– phpalix
                Feb 13, 2013 at 15:39
I know this post was created on 2013 but didn't saw the common solution.
This error occurs after adding multiple to the file submit form
for example you are using files like this on php: $_FILES['file']['tmp_name']
But after the adding multiple option to the form. Your input name became file => file[]
so even if you post just one file,  $_FILES['file']['tmp_name'] should be change to $_FILES['file']['tmp_name'][0]
        
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