Image Display: Back to basics

lesser_guru

I have been frustrated for days just trying to display image files or any other file for that matter. I've been going through the forums for days and I still can't do it.

I want to be able to display an uploaded file. Here is a simple script that should do it, but it doesn't work for me.

<?php
$filename = "fly.gif";
$size = filesize($filename);
header('Content-type: image/gif');
readfile($filename);
echo $filename;
?>

This should display the .gif but all I get is a broken image icon.

If I look at the page source I can see all the scrambled text that the file is there.
So I know the file was transferred to the browser.

Also if I try to display the code above in an html image tag on another page the result is the same.

For example if I put the above code in a file called test.php and then try to call it from another page with this code:

I still get the same result.

Just for the record. The file is fine and will display normally if I just load it. I've tried this with both IE and Firefox browsers and I have tried using other headers such as Content-length.

So what am I missing or doing wrong? Any help would be much appreciated or if someone has a basic script that I can just run from my www directory for proof of concept so I can actually read a file and load it into a browser so it displays properly.

devinemke

i think you are over-complicating this. if all you want to do is display an image in the browser you don't need to use headers you simply need simple HTML:

$image_path = '/path/to/image.gif';
echo '<img src="' . $image_path . '">';

i suspect what may have been your problem before is that you were not using the correct path to your uploaded image. you code suggested that the image and the PHP script were in the same directory (relative path).

lesser_guru

Maybe I better explain a little more. In my example I put the .gif file in the same directory which probably oversimplified a bit. I was just looking for the most basic way to read a file into the browser.

I am wanting to put files in a directory outside the www root and display them. So to load those files I have to call them with a script.

Sorry if I didn't explain that before.
I need to have a script that can load those image files into the browser. I just can't seem to be able to do that using readfile() or fread().

devinemke

header('Content-type: image/gif'); 
$path = '/path/to/uploaded/image/gif'; // which may be outside the doc root
readfile($path);
exit();

lesser_guru

Thanks for your quick help. I'll try this out and see how it goes.

lesser_guru

OK, I put this code into it's own php file called try.php.

<?php
header('Content-type: image/gif'); 
$path = 'gnee8.gif'; // which may be outside the doc root
readfile($path);
exit();
?>

Then I call try.php
with another file which has this code:

<img src='<?php include('frame_file.php'); ?>'>

When I do this the browser just displays a broken img icon. Then if I look at the page source code I see:

<body>
<img src='
GIF89aÜ÷ÿÿÿÿÿ÷ÿ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷ïï÷÷÷ïïïïïïëæææïæææÞæææãÞÞÞæÞÞÞÞÞÖÞ

This continues for what looks like the entire gif file. However I will note that I don't see the close of the <img> tag or the close of the <body> tag and <html> tag.

I must be doing something wrong, but I can't find it.

yelvington

Lesser, what you're doing is unfortunately common: you're getting mixed up by the fact that you're using PHP and forgetting what you know about HTML.

The basics do not change. HTML is still HTML.

You can not embed binary data in an HTML file. Images are always indicated by reference.

is OK, presuming try.php is written as devinemke suggested.

Instead, you placed the entire binary content of an image into the HTML by using include() where you should have a URI. Naturally, your Web browser thinks you've gone daft.

Now, let's go back to your original posting. You did this:

<?php
$filename = "fly.gif";
$size = filesize($filename);
header('Content-type: image/gif');
readfile($filename);
echo $filename;
?>

You can't do anything with filesize in this script. Cut that line out. You can NOT echo text on top of a GIF data stream, so cut that out, too. You're left with pretty much the same script devinemke provided.

One big warning: Make sure there are no spaces in your PHP file before <?. The < must be the very first character in the file, or PHP will emit default headers including "Content-type: text/html" and you will get a broken image.

lesser_guru

Yes! YES!! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A thousand thank yous to both
yelvington and devinemke for time and advice.

The problem turned out to be what yelv mentioned in the warning of the last post.

I had spaces in my php before <?php...

I remember reading in some other forums not to have have spaces but I didn't realize that it was at the very beginning. I think a lot of newbies like me don't realize the small details like that... And the Pros like you guys just take them for granted and usually don't bother to mention them. If it wasn't for that last bit I would still be pulling my hair out and have all the ridiculous pieces of code in my script that got there out of desperation. Thanks again for clueing me in to a simple but very important piece of info that made all the difference. This site is a great resource and thanks again to the clever guys who take the time to help the rest of us out.

lesser_guru

OK, One more question.

How do I set it up so that I can adjust settings like width and height of the image?

Do I use the image tag or is that also something I should do with headers?

If I do use the image tag, can you show me how its done. Thanks again.

devinemke

[man]getimagesize[/man]

lesser_guru

OK Great.

One other thing. How do I include it in another page with lots of other things on it like tables and other images etc. Thanks.