Flash/PHP - Put your picure on the cover of a magazine

[ripcurlksm]

I am interested in creating a flash-based application that will allow a user to:

1) Upload a photo of themself
2) Place a logo/change logo color
3) Export that image to print and/or send to a friend

Has this been done before, any advice?

[lpxxfaintxx]

Hrm, this could be done by PHP with the same methods as watermarking. Am I correct? (Sorry I couldn't really help you, I am still learning too)

[Blulagoon]

You can use PHP to allow users to upload photos and logos (which presumably are also image files?) using the ftp_connect, ftp_login and ftp_put functions.

You can also upload a file using a form which allows the user to select the file from their local system and submit via POST, but this is restricted by some commercial webhosting companies, who do not allow 'write' access to the tmp dir.

You can use the mail() function to allow the user to send the file to a named recipient, but beware spammers might be able to hijack that.

No idea how you would change the colour of the logo.

Blu

[ripcurlksm]

thanks for the help guys

[bpat1434]

Look into the [man]GD[/man] Library that comes with PHP. It's not enabled by default, but most hosts have it enabled. You might not be able to modify the colors, but you might be able to add your own things to it.

While you can't do a lot with GD (it's very limited, but good for what it does) ImageMagick, if available on your server, is definately a better tool to use. It's very robust in features, and you really can do almost anything with ImageMagick you might do in Photoshop on an average day. Just look at their examples. Really an extraordinary extension.

The upload stuff can be done straight through a form too. No need to use the ftp functions (which might slow it down). Unless you anticipate people uploading over 2MB photos (which they may, not sure of your target audience) then a form would be just fine. Otherwise, you may have to use the FTP functions, but still, through a form with a size-limit. There are ways around: ini_set, HTML max-filesize tags. So you'd just upload it, modify the image as you see fit while it's in the temp direcotry (default upload directory for any file) and then when you're done, just move it from it's temp directory to it's permanent location. Then, of course, CHMOD it to 644 so you can work with it through FTP.