saving jpeg to file on server, “../uploads/” doesn't work but “\uploads\\” does

Question

So, here is my basic file structure:

- public_html/
--index.php
---php/
---imageUpload.php
--uploads/

I have got a PHP script which works fine, up until it comes to execute imagejpeg() command, this is what mine looks like:

imagejpeg($images_fin,"../uploads/".$new_images); //Save image to file

Obviously I have got ../ as I want to go back a folder, as uploads/ is in the root directory. If I try that though I get this error:

PHP Error Message Warning: imagejpeg() [function.imagejpeg]: Unable to open '../uploads/' for writing: Is a directory in /home/a9990485/public_html/php/uploadImage.php on line 42

However, if I change my imagejpeg to this:

imagejpeg($images_fin,"..\uploads\\".$new_images); //Save image to file

It just creates a new folder called ..\\uploads\\\\ in my php/ folder and the image saves in there. What is going on, why can't I go back into my root directory and save it in my uploads folder!

I have tried $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/public_html/uploads/" but I get an error saying I have no access to the folder than as i'm assuming it's trying to go too far back into the hosts file structure.

Answer 1

probable reason for this is $new_images variable is empty. The php error says

Unable to open '../uploads/' for writing

which means it is trying to open ../uploads/ which is a folder and not a file