[RESOLVED] Image Upload: What are my options?

Scriptmaker

I'm almost finished making a script that will allow an apartment broker to track apartment listings, landlord, and clients. I need to be able to add/delete/view multiple images for each apartment listing, but I need some advice for choosing a direction to go:

Add several more columns to the existing LISTINGS database, ie image1,image2,image3 (I don't like this idea because it will limit how many pictures a listing can have.)

Add just one column to the LISTINGS database and store image urls separated by commas, then explode the string to extract the urls. (This would probably make deleting harder.)

Create a seperate images database, and have a LISTINGSID column in that database.

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Sorry if I'm not expressing my question clearly enough. Please let me know if you need further explanation.

Thanks!
Jorge

blackhorse

Create a seperate images database, and have a LISTINGSID column in that database

Kudose

I use option #2 for my image needs. I haven't noticed any performance issues or had any complications working with the images.

Here is one of the sites running the software I found via Google: http://www.royalautosalesofomaha.com/view.php/12/Mitsubishi/Galant/1995

Scriptmaker

blackhorse wrote:
Create a seperate images database, and have a LISTINGSID column in that database

I ended up doing this and it's working out just fine. Thanks for the suggestions.

laserlight

That is the correct normalised approach too, except that what you call a "database" is more accurately called a "table".

blackhorse

I call it "database" in some situations too. 🙂 Programmers call it a "table", but when I talk with my clients, if I call it table, the clients get confused, and if I call it "database", they understand.

Such as "we will create a table to hold the users information." the client "?", if we said "we would create a users database to hold the users information." the client understood.

So I call it table when I talk with the designers/programmers in the team, and we call it "database" when we talk with clients. Of course, in the contract we use the right terms such as 1 database or 3 databases per site etc.