having php generate images on the fly

Jsn7821

test.php

$text = "text";
echo '<img src="image.php">';

image.php

...
imagettftext($image, 10, 0, 10, 110,  $white, $font, "$text");
...

It's obvious why this doesn't work. image.php has no way of getting $text.

I am setting up a photo gallery for a friend, and I want all of the titles and dates to look good (cursive font, anti-aliased) so I am attempting to write a php script where all he has to do is enter a title and date into a database, and it will create the image on-the-fly.

Has anyone tried to do something like this before? I have no idea how to go about it... let alone know if it's even possible.

bpat1434

Well, if you're retrieving the information from a database, you can send it to "image.php" via the URL.

image.php?title=some_title&cap=some_caption

Now, if I am correct in remember, you may have to replace " " with "%20" so that the URL is one long string, and then take them out again on the other side. No big deal.

The one thing you want to remember is to make sure that the image.php page has no header/content before you output the image. That will kill you for hours when you try to find the problem... trust me.

As for generating a dynamic image, I've done it. It's not hard, it just requires time and patience and reading up on how to use the GD functions in PHP is a real help.

I'm not sure about the cursive-anti-aliased fonts, but hey, you never know 'til you try. Hope I have helped you some...

~Brett

Jsn7821

http://www.realstatic.com/newer/test.php 🆒 🆒

Thanks.

bpat1434

Well, that wasn't that hard... glad to see you got it working...

~Brett

Jsn7821

I can't figure out how have it let me put quotes into the image.

test.php

if (isset($_POST[submit])) {
	echo '<img src="image.php?one='.$_POST[one].'&two='.$_POST[two].'">';
}

image.php

imagettftext($image, 14, 0, 10, 25,  $white, '$fonnt', "$_REQUEST[one]");

bpat1434

urlencode()....

urldecode()....

$one = urlencode($_POST[one]);
$two = urlencode($_POST[two]);
if (isset($_POST[submit])) {
    echo '<img src="image.php?one='.$one.'&two='.$two.'">';
}

 imagettftext($image, 14, 0, 10, 25,  $white, '$fonnt', urldecode($_REQUEST[one]));

~Brett

Jsn7821

Doh. But,

Using those, a double-quote produces \\"
urldecode(stripslashes($two)) produces \"
urldecode(stripslashes(stripslashes($two))) produces "

Is this poor programingship?

bpat1434

just use urlencode() and urldecode()

~Brett

Jsn7821

I am, but for some strange reason it puts three backslashes before each quote. It works fine when I pack two stripslashes() in with it. Not sure why its doing this, though.