Handling images using PHP With MySQL

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November 5th, 2012, 10:04 PM

BitZoid

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PHP-General - Handling images using PHP With MySQL

Hi,

I'm nervous about completing my clients web-application, a mysql database and administrative user interface to manage that database - where all changes would be directly apparent on the public web-site; because I have no idea how to handle images in mysql and php, you can see why I'm nervous.

I've done some research and I think I should store the images on the web server, and put the link to them in the database within its respective row.

However, I have no idea how to generate the proper file names, paths, and the user "Browse for files on computed" upload function.

Does anybody have any pointers to get me started - I'm fairly novice in the implementation of the php and mysql code, maybe intermediate in my understanding of computers and programming.

November 5th, 2012, 11:17 PM

ManiacDan

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1) Uploading files in an HTML form. Use <input type="file"> and you're done.

2) Accepting file uploads in php. See the manual for move_uploaded_file. Make sure the destination is still inside the web root somewhere

3) Naming the destination file. See the manual for uniqid

4) Inserting the file row into the database. You already know this for the rest of your operations, a file path is no different than any other string.

5) Showing the images back to end-users. Print the <img /> tag like any other image, just use the filename in the database. As long as you put it in a web-accessible directory in #2 you should be fine.

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November 5th, 2012, 11:23 PM

E-Oreo

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From a security standpoint, the most critical element is validating the extension of the uploaded file. The manual page on move_uploaded_file should discuss this.

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November 6th, 2012, 04:46 PM

schworak

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This isn't a solution but let me give you a little advice...

If you are talking about a few hundred images, it might be ok to store them in the database. But more than that and you are creating a bottleneck in the system.

Keeping track of image names in the database but keeping the files on the hard drive is more efficient. I say this from experience on several projects where image storage was in the database at first for ease of access. Over time, getting the images required more and more resources and a lot of database traffic.

In every case, we ended up moving all images off the database and into the file system.

Some times we check for the existence of the image every time it is asked for other times only once in a while just in case someone manually deleted it. In most cases we have a Javascript function that fires off when an image can't load to notify our app to go check it and at the same time put up a "no image" image for the user.

If you really need to store the images in the database then so be it. I would just give that some serious thought.

November 6th, 2012, 05:27 PM

notflip

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A head start

PHP Code:


		
			
 $images = mysql_query("SELECT img_href FROM images");



while($row = mysql_fetch_array($images)){

echo '<img src="' . $row['img_href'] . '" />';

}

Goodluck!

PHP-General - Handling images using PHP With MySQL

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