[Resolved] This one is driving me batty. :(

[Dolemite50]

Hello,
I have a form that lets people update personal info. If they go to the edit page, the textfields are populated with their info from a mysql database. They then make changes and hit submit and it updates the database. All is working great EXCEPT:

One field is a file field for images. If it is left blank on the original update I want to use a default image path in the database. ("nopic.jpg") I am having alot of trouble trying to figure out how to design it to where it will only update the file if a file was uploaded and if not to use the default image.

I am using

if(is_uploaded_file($FILES['image']['tmp_name']))
{
move_uploaded_file($FILES['image']['tmp_name'], "./bandpics/".$_FILES['image']['name']);}

and

$image = $_FILES['image']['name'];

and

$sql = "UPDATE $table SET location ='$location', image = '$image', descr = '$descr' WHERE loginName = '$loginName'";

The sad thing is I dont think I can explain it any better. If anybody has a clue as to what I'm rambling about please help.

[tsinka]

Hi,

do something like this:

$image = "nopic.jpg";
if (is_uploaded_file($_FILES['image']['tmp_name'])) {
  if (move_uploaded_file($_FILES['image']['tmp_name'], "./bandpics/".$_FILES['image']['name']))
    $image = $_FILES['image']['name'];
}

$sql = "UPDATE $table SET location ='$location', image = '$image', descr = '$descr' WHERE loginName = '$loginName'"; 

Thomas

[Dolemite50]

Thanks so much tsinka, I'll try it now.

[Dolemite50]

A question about that.
Say the person comes back to update later and leaves the file field blank. Wouldnt this code cause it to overwrite the file he previously uploaded with "nopic.jpg"?.

[tsinka]

There is one problem ... you might need to modify the filename a little bit because you might get in trouble if another picture with the given filename already exists. Add e.g. a unique hash to the picture filename and store the original name in the table, too, if you need it.

Thomas

[tsinka]

Ok,

if you don't want to overwrite existing data then use ...,image=image in your query or don't use it at all in your query.

You can do something like this:

$sql = "UPDATE $table SET location ='$location',"
      ."image = IF(image<>'',image,'$image'), "
      ."descr = '$descr' WHERE loginName = '$loginName'";

That only works with MySQL, do you use MySQL ? If not, then only add image=... to the query if $image is not "nopic.jpg" or use a boolean variable inside the if statements to check if you need to use image in the query or not.

Thomas

[Dolemite50]

Thanks again. Ill try it.

[Dolemite50]

Thomas was the "if" on the second line intentional here?

if (is_uploaded_file($FILES['image']['tmp_name'])) {
if (move_uploaded_file($FILES['image']['tmp_name'], "./bandpics/".$_FILES['image']['name']))

[tsinka]

Yes,

if the move_uploaded_file fails for some reason then use the nopic.jpg instead. This might not be the best approach. It would be better to implement some error checking instead of just using nopic.jpg. I think, it's always a good idea to catch any error that might happen.

Thomas

[Dolemite50]

Is there a way to populate the file field with the info from mysql?

[tsinka]

The problem is that you don't know the local image directory of the client workstation and that you even don't know if the image still exists on the client side.

So I'd suggest to add a hidden field to the form that holds the filename of the image. If someone wants to update the data and doesn't upload a file you can use the value of the hidden field instead.

Thomas

Edit: replaced "need" by "know" in this post.

[drawmack]

If you're only allowing each user to upload one picture it is much better to store a tinyint field in the database that is 0 if they have not uploaded a picture. If they have uploaded a picture use 1 for jpg, 2 for gif, 3 for png.

Then come up with a naming scheme for the pictures on the system based on the primary key of this table.

This way you don't have any filemanagement headaches. Someone upload a picture you delete all the pictures named what they should be for this user by your naming scheme. Also, you don't have to worry about naming conflicts (like two users uploading pictures named mypic.jpg) because each user has a specific name for their file.

Then you write a get pic script that will read in the pic field from the database, if it is 0 the default picture is displayed, if it is 1 you display userid.jpg, etc.

[Dolemite50]

Thanks alot guys.

I may end up going that route, Drawmack. I was just trying to get this to work:

$image = "nopic.jpg";
$imagech = "{$_POST['hiddenImage']}"; //draws image name from database

if (is_uploaded_file($FILES['image']['tmp_name'])) {
move_uploaded_file($FILES['image']['tmp_name'], "./bandpics/".$FILES['image']['name']);
$image = $FILES['image']['name'];
}
else {
if ($imagech != "" || $imagech != "nopic.jpg"){
$image = $imagech;
}

$sql = "UPDATE $table SET image='$image' WHERE...

Was I even in the ballpark?

Also, I would like to just add the $bandName variable to the front of the $image variable since the $bandName will be unique. Is that a good strategy?

Thanks again.

[drawmack]

First when posting code use the [php][/php] tag buckets when posting code.

if(!is_uploaded_file($_FILES['image']['tmp_name']))
    $image = 'nopic.jpg';
else {
  move_uploaded_file($_FILES['image']['tmp_name'], "./bandpics/".$_FILES['image']['name']);
    $image = $_FILES['image']['name']; 
} 

$sql = "UPDATE $table SET image='$image' WHERE...

That would accomplish what you were wanting to do. But allow me to take this opportunity to exemplify why the method I mentioned before is better.

Let's say a cracker registers with your system and doesn't upload a picture. Then they view their profile and notice that the filename is nopic.jpg. So they attempt to upload their own file named nopic.jpg. They have just changed your default image with let's say a pornographic picture. Whereas using the method I mentioned above the pornographic picture would still only be related to their profile.

[Dolemite50]

Thanks for the great advice.

On the above example, if they later edited their info and didnt upload a picture again, wouldnt it overwrite their current pic with "nopic.jpg"?

[Dolemite50]

Drawmack,
A question on your idea.
What is the revelancy of having 2= png 3 = gif etc?
Would it work if I just used a tinyint and changed it to 1 if they uploaded a pic or leave it at 0 if they don't?

What do I gain from having the extensions?

Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

[drawmack]

Originally posted by Dolemite50
Drawmack,
A question on your idea.
What is the revelancy of having 2= png 3 = gif etc?
Would it work if I just used a tinyint and changed it to 1 if they uploaded a pic or leave it at 0 if they don't?

What do I gain from having the extensions?

Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

Finer granulation of data is really all. You see this way you can just copy the current pic to the uploaded pics directory and not have to change the picture type so you don't have to mess with gd until you get into writting the get picture script, which actually you don't have to write as you could just link directly to the picture from inside the view script. So you don't have to mess with gd at all, however if you just use 0 for no pic and 1 for pic then you still have to figure out the extension at some piont or mess with gd so there is no extension to worry about.

[Dolemite50]

Im still not quite sure why I need the extension. I currently use:

echo '<img src="bandpics/' . $image . '" width="115" height="115">';

and it seems to work OK. Is there something else that I should be concerened about?

[drawmack]

right now you're storing the extension in your database. If you use my method you'll be losing that information. So you'll need to do 1 of three things.

1) Only allow users to upload images with a specific extension.

2) Convert all images to a given extension (type).

3) Somehow manage to keep the extension information without actually storing the extension in the database.

I don't recommend the first method because it lacks user friendliness and therefor will cause some people not to participate.

The second method means you'll have to mess with the gd library. Personally I would use this method but I don't recommend it to the inexperienced as there are other means you should learn to use first.

The third method is the one I explained earlier and I recommend for its programmer friendliness without the detriment of user unfriendliness.

[Dolemite50]

oop