How to go about doing this

pinehead18

I have a question on the best way to go about making this code.

Basically i have a picture system. Its a family photo album. And i allow each family member to post 5 pictures.

However, i need to make a script that will automatically look and then deside what field to post to.

FOr example.

If the field pic1 already has ap icture then i want it to look and see if pic2 has one. If not i want it to upload to pic2 but if pic2 has a picture i want it to check pic3 and so on.

Any ideas on the best way to go about this?

Thank you
- Anthony

drawmack

it would help if you told us where the information is stored. Is it mysql, postgre, text files, xml, etc? We cannot answer the question without this information.

pinehead18

The fields are mysql

drawmack

and the database layout is?

pinehead18

Data base lay out?

5 Feilds. Varchar 25
main pic
pic2
pic3
pic4
pic5

drawmack

You have no unique_id? How do you even know which record is associated with which family member?

pinehead18

I have all that taken care of. I just need to know how to have it check to see if the main pic already has a url. If it does then check to see if pic2 has one. If it doesn't then set $pic = to pic2 else check to see if pic 3 has one.

But i'm unable to figure that part out

drawmack

okay then:

select all the fields and store them into variables
then check the variables in order (the $$ operator will be your friend here) the first variable that comes up with nothing in it then gets the new information in it. Then you use your variables to update that database and stick the new information in the correct field. If you can't figure out the code for this then post your entire table layout, like I asked for, and I'll help you.

laeelin

What I do personally is have a field called someting like "images"..

Then I make a list of the files like this..

url1/image.jpg,url2/image2.jpg,url3/image3.jpg

then when a new image is sent connect to the database and store the information in that field into a variable..

$images=explode(',',$databaseField);
$count = count($images);
if($count<5){
$images = $databaseField.','.$newImagePath;
}

// save the new images into the database.

I'm not an expert but thats how I normally do it.. I like to use this method because I like to be able to store as few or many images into the database as I want to.

pinehead18

Wow, thats a great idea, and with less code.

Thank you

ANthony

pinehead18

Hey, is it possible to read how many arrays are in the explode? LIke how many urls are in it? for example

"One . Two . Three" to count that their are three?
So i can try and base my scritp on that i know whats going on in the persons db/?

laeelin

thats what the line:

$count = count($images);

does...

the value of $count is the number of images stored in the array

leatherback

Not really planning on ruining your evening, but ehhh.. Have you considered using a tabledesign like:
id | Member | image

and store each image in an individual record?
THat's how I would suggest doing it..

laeelin

hehe, i should have mentioned that way as well...

Thats another nice way of doing it..

It just depends on your needs.(like always)

pinehead18

Ok, here is my problem. What i do is i have a first my_pictures page. What that page does is it grabs the images and puts them in image from. LIke a little mini picture of whats in the db. When you want to update that image you click on the specific image and it will take you to the upload picture page.

The way i had it working was fine. Except in order to identify what image it was changing i had to add on a var to the url . url/uploadimage.php?image=main and so on.

However, when it it went to upload the image.. It refreshed the page and it would loose the image=main.

I'm trying to figure out how to use an array to be able to uplaod the images. But with the array can i tell it to change a specific one? LIke the first pic in the array?

for example
array(pic1,pic2,pic3) can i pull pic1 make a link to it on my_pictures.php and then the person clicks on it and changes only pic1 ?