[Resolved] imagestring and other image stuff

keithstric

Hello all,

I'm trying to create a page that will display an image across the page as a divider and put text which is pulled from a database on that image. But, I'm having some issues and I'm willing to bet that it's just me missing something very simple. Here's what's happening, the image is getting displayed but the text isn't being written onto the image. Here is the code I'm using which is it's own file called midbar.php:

<?php
header("Content-type: image/png");
$string = $_GET['text'];
$im2 = imagecreatefrompng("Images/bar_middle.png");
$black = imagecolorallocate($im2, 0, 0, 0);
imagestring($im2, 4, 5, 2, $string, $black);
imagepng($im2);
imagedestroy($im2);
?>

I'm calling this with the following on another page called test.php:

So my question is:

What have I done wrong to prevent the text from being displayed on the bar_middle.png image? (code above)

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Keith

hi-liter

test.php should be:

<a href="midbar.php?text=testing">go to image</a>

midbar.php should be:

or will have to do some other method than GET maybe.

keithstric

hi-liter,

Thanks for the reply. I'm wanting to display this image on the fly, not create a clickable link to the image, which is why I'm using
<img src="midbar.php?text=testing" width="100%" height="25">
to call midbar.php.

I've done some testing with the imagestring line by hardcoding the text to display and that produces the same results. Here's the line I used for testing, all of the rest of the code the same:

imagestring($im2, 4, 5, 2, "testing", $black);

The image is being displayed it just that the text isn't being displayed. Also, regarding using something other than GET... When I right click the image in the browser, select properties the value of $string is listed in the URL which suggests that the text is actually being passed.

I've also tried changing the x & y coordinates around also with no luck, thinking that maybe the text is trying to be displayed off the image or something. Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance

Keith

hi-liter

it's not using GET to grab the text, the way you've got it coded:

it's using it right from there as it is assigned.

try something in the way of the following for test.php:

<?php

// grab your variable from db here
$testing = "testing";

echo ("

");

using % width however is going to stretch your text though, as it's now a part of the image, try locking the size in, say 25 height, and 200 width, and place it in a header table, in the far right cell of 3. then in the middle cell, give it a width of 1000 or something, and overall table width=100%. that may work to stretch it all the way out.

something like:

<table border="0" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td><img src="images/shim.gif" width="1" height="25"></td>
<td width="3000"><img src="images/shim.gif" width="9" height="74" border="0"></td>
<td>
<?php

$testing = "testing";

echo ("

");

?>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

use a 100% table width, a cell with a repeating background image, and just your $testing in the cell using regular old font maybe better? no need for GD then...

hth.

keithstric

hi-liter,

Thanks for the reply. After some testing I've found that it's the image which is the problem. Dunno why or how but when I basically re-created the image it worked. Go figure. I've also made some changes to the code using your idea of using echo "<img src=...>" and passing it a variable. This works. I have however not had a chance to test how you setup the table so that the text on the image would not be stretched which causing an issue finding a "clean" looking font. If you like you can check it out www.keithstric.com/test.php. The text being stretched is the issue right now so I'm gonna give your idea a try and see what happens. Thanks again for the reply.

Keith

hi-liter

on your site, it looks like you're not in need of full width (100%) bar, as the blue bars appear to be 814 px in width. (too big a width for any screen resolution of 800x600 maybe?).

if you don't need them to be longer than 770px or in your case 800px, why expand them 100%? just use a full width image, and won't have a font-stretch issue...

or maybe better yet would be using a background image (the blue bar) and then just putting regular old font in the cell....maybe faster (server response) that way?

<td background="bluebar.png">$testing</td>

but then you'd be ditching the fun and cool GD stuff...

you may have to use a px width on the overall table that contains this info, to keep the width. also would recommend a width of 770 or so rather than > that. just my opinion.

btw, noticed you are a notes/domino admin, i am in luck of having to work w/ Notes/Domino to build and work on apps other's have created. know of any good sites for help like this one? but for domino? i use the lotus forum once in awhile, but find it not all that great...thx. (better than nothing of course).

well hth some...

keithstric

hi-liter,

yeah looked at it at 800x600 and it's awful 🙂, when I first started messing with that I was using imagepx (I think). So I'm gonna try the background image and see what that does cause the whole thing is table driven..

As for Lotus Domino. Once you get to know it, it's a great product to work with. The help documentation is excellent for Lotus Notes Designer client with examples of all the different @commands and lotusscipt and java. As for some sites to goto for Lotus. There is www.lotus.com/ldd the forums there are good. There is also www.codestore.com it's not a forum but has alot of code examples. www.openntf.org has alot of database templates to use including their excellent mail template. www.searchdomino.com and www.dominopower.com. Those are some of the better ones that I've found but I'm sure there are others.

hth

Keith

hi-liter

site's looking good.

thx for the lotus links, also pulled some lotus docs off your site. 😃