reading binary image data

[Anon]

I am a complete newbie at this php,mysql jive and I am trying to build a db that will store an image, description, name etc. I can upload the images into the db fine and view them using your getdata.php,but I want to be able to see both the images and relating text (description, name etc)from the database on the same page but dont seem to be able to get them both going. i can get the image (still in binary) and the text on the same page but cant work out what to do about the image still showing up as binary. I have an idea its something to do with sending the filetype to the header, but i get an error saying that it cant send the info becuase its already being sent by the document somewhere. So if there is any easy explaination for solving my problems then I would love to hear it...not so easy ones welcome as well

[Anon]

No way to tell from your description.

If you are trying to mingle image and text information in a single document, perhaps you should stop to consider that the Web doesn't work that way. Objects must consist of a single MIME type; the browser puts multiple objects together to display a page.

In other words, write an image script and a page script. Separately.
If you've already done that, then perhaps your problem is as simple as junk existing in your PHP script before the header() function call. Be careful not to output any data before calling header(). Not even a blank line or a space.

[van__]

The problem you have is not headers or mime-types, it's the fact that to display the image, the binary output needs to be in it's own file. When you try to tell the page to be a binary image but throw in some HTML output along with it, you currupt the binary file image header.

To keep the database activity down and avoid a second query, what I would do is actually create the image as a file on the server by writing it out from the DB result and then having the <img> tag reference that file. You could also get tricky with it by writing out a PHP file that echos the binary data after sending out the appropriate header (img/jpeg etc) and then unlink() itself for automatic garbage disposal.

But anyway you do it, you'll need to have a second file to act as the actual image.

So sayeth the sheppard, so sayeth the flock!