Image Hosting by PHP

Before you start this lesson, please read the following lesson first:

• Insert binary file using PHP code
• Using form insert binary file into MySQL
• Retrieve binary file from MySQL
• Using phpMyAdmin Create Database
• using phpMyAdmin insert binary file

This lesson will show you how to create image hosting database by using PHP and MySQL

Create image hosting database

In this database we need store image's type(jpg,gif,tif....etc), image original name, image,and a unique id for stored image.

Suppose the image hosting table is named as imagehosting, it has 4 columns: id(auto increment), type(Varchar),name(Varchar) and image(MEDIUMBLOB).

The SQL command like the following

CREATE TABLE `imagehosting`
( id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT ,
`type` VARCHAR( 30 ) NOT NULL ,
`name` VARCHAR( 50 ) NOT NULL ,
`image` MEDIUMBLOB NOT NULL ,
PRIMARY KEY ( `id` ) ) TYPE = MYISAM ;

If you have read the lesson: Using phpMyAdmin Create Database and using phpMyAdmin insert binary file you should be able create this database in a snap.

Create HTML Form for uploading image

You clients need an interface to upload their images. The interface is the form you gonna create.

Using form insert binary file into MySQL already shows how to create the Form. Just use it.

Uploading image into database

The lesson Using form insert binary file into MySQL use a table with 2 columns. Here we use 4 columns in our image hosting table. So upload.php is changed like following:

<?php
if(isset($_POST['upload']))
{
//get file information --step1
$fileName = $_FILES['userfile']['name'];
$fileType = $_FILES['userfile']['type'];
$tmpName = $_FILES['userfile']['tmp_name'];
$fileSize = $_FILES['userfile']['size'];

if(!get_magic_quotes_gpc())
{
$fileName = addslashes($fileName);
}

//get file content -- step1
$fp = fopen($tmpName, 'r');
$content = fread($fp, $fileSize);
$content = addslashes($content);
fclose($fp);

//connect to database --step2
$username="username"; //your user name
$password="yourpasword"; //input your password here.
$database="yourdatabase"; //your database
$link=mysql_connect(localhost,$username,$password);
@mysql_select_db($database) or die("<b>Unable to specified database</b>");

//insert into database --step3
$query = "INSERT INTO gallery (type,name,image) ". "VALUES('$fileType','$fileName','$content')";
mysql_query($query) or die('Error, query failed');

//return insert information to client
$id= mysql_insert_id();
echo "File<b> $fileName</b> uploaded as id= $id<br>";
echo "Retrieve URL=http://www.yourwebsite/download.php?id=$id";
mysql_close($link); //close connection
}
?>

get_magic_quotes_gpc is checking magic quotes set or not. If not set, addslashes($fileName); will add back slashes to the special charaters in $fileName like O\'Realy become O\\\'Realy, so that it could be stored in MySQL properly.

echo "Retrieve URL=http://www.yourwebsite/download.php?id=$id"; just send a reminder to your customers how to retrieve their images. You customer could use the following HTML to retrieve their image:

<img src="http://www.yourwebsite/download.php?id=16">

Retrieve Image from Database

download.php is similar to the one we used in lesson Retrieve binary file from MySQL.

The only difference is we add header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$filename"). You may add this line if you want the user be prompted to save the data you are sending, for example, you are sending PDF, zip, ...etc. Otherwise, you may delete this line.

Please not that header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$filename") won't prompt user if customers load their image like

<img src="http://www.yourwebsite/download.php?id=16">

It will prompt user to save file if used like following

<a href ="http://www.yourwebsite/download.php?id=16"> myimage</a>

More applications

The above code is suitable for any binary files. You may use it for PDF file hosting, Software hosting(exe,zip files), music hosting(MP3,mid)...

Try this example.