Image Upload Questions

phence

I am working on a site where my client wants a classified adds section. I have been looking all over, at tons a image upload classes and scripts. i can't seem to find anything that i can get to work right...

The problem is that the image is not going to be uploaded on the page it asks the user to Browse thier computer for the image.

Here is the senerio of what happens when a user creates a listing, all this work is done but the image upload stuff found inside the .

User clicks create an add
user selectes category
user types in add information and chooses BROWSE to find image
user previews add Picture is previewed on page
user either edits thier add or proceeds to checkout
user enters in billing info.
users' info. is verified
listing is entered into database Here is where pic is uploaded

The users information is passed from page to page by SESSIONS.

How can i collect the image path and it's properties? i'm just lost as to what to do and impliment an image database with this site.

MORE QUESTIONS
Also, I am not sure how I should integrate the image database with the "Classified_Adds" database?
How many different directories should i use to store the images? should the images be stored according to category? what happens if one user wants to upload my_bike.jpg and there is already a my_bike.jpg file in the image directory?

Thank-you very much for any help you can offer! Let me know if this was not clear enough. Thanks!

swr

Originally posted by phence
The problem is that the image is not going to be uploaded on the page it asks the user to Browse thier computer for the image.

You can't do that. The "browse" and the upload are part of the same mechanism in the web browser.

You can't have a preview before the upload. You don't have the image until they upload it, and you can't show them a preview of an image you don't have.

What you can do is have the user upload the file, show a preview of everything, then have a "commit changes" button to make things permanent.

How can i collect the image path and it's properties? i'm just lost as to what to do and impliment an image database with this site.

See here for how to handle file uploads:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/features.file-upload.php

How many different directories should i use to store the images? should the images be stored according to category?

Handle the directories however you want. It shouldn't really matter; category and such should be handled in the database. Put the category and other info, and the filename, into the database. Keep in mind though that some servers' filesystems don't handle directories with lots of files very well, in which case you are better off splitting things into multiple directories instead of one big one.

what happens if one user wants to upload my_bike.jpg and there is already a my_bike.jpg file in the image directory?

Don't let the user choose the filename. Give it a number or something. I often name files based on the primary key for the file's info in the database. That way you know it will be unique. Also, by not allowing them to choose the name, you avoid nasty things like users specifying "../../../some/other/directory".

phence

Thanks alot For your Reply swr...

How about for this for the preview page...
Could you not take the path that has been "browse"d by the user and use the direct path from their hard drive to display the image on the preview page?? then session that path to upload the picture at the end of the order process??

or can we not manipulate the upload function that way? that seems to be the most logical way if it is possible??

thanks again

swr

You can't get the path that has been browsed by the user until they do the upload. The browse and upload functions are all combined on the web browser. Your PHP script only gets the information when the user hits "submit", which causes the browsed file to be uploaded. There is no way to tell the web browser "send me the info that would have been sent with the file if the file had been uploaded, but don't actually upload the file". As far as the web browser is concerned it's all one thing - a single form element.

phence

alright, sounds good.. thanks alot

now say i want to store the images a per category.. I have over 200 categories, i don't want to sit here a create 200 directories is there a way that if there is no directory already there that i could create a directory from php?

thanks

swr

if (!is_dir("$path/$category")) {
    mkdir("$path/$category") or die("Could not create directory.");
}

uodeltasig

Although the authors above are correct in that you cannot get control of the image before before it is uploaded, this is only case because PHP it is serverside. However, javascript is client side and can easily reference a users local files system before they have to submit it. I was too lazy to bust out a code for it but a google search for it brought it up in the 2nd listing.... http://dmxzone.com/ShowDetail.asp?NewsId=4120
So, I would espect that senior members would STFW before they tell people they CANNOT do something. Odd's are if there is a feature it seems like it would make sense to implement it's implemented unless it's a security risk.