Automation for storing images in mysql database

derickist

Hi,
I have a few hundred image files properly named and stored in organized folders on my server. Is there an automated way using PHP to store these images in a MySQL database. i.e. without using a form and the user manually clicking the "submit" button? Because doing so would require me browsing for images and clicking the submit button a few hundred times 🙁

Thanks in advance

dagon

dont store the images in the db, just there file name\ location

you can loop though the directories with glob()

mikell

To store the actual image in the database, I would think you could write a script using the file_get_contents() function to read the images one by one (in binary mode) and insert them.
I've never stored images before, just image names/paths, but I would think that would work. If this is something you just need to do once, then just get a list of all the absolute filenames of the images and write a loop to get the contents of each one and insert them one by one into your database.

derickist

thanks mikell, that's exactly what I was looking for. This is in fact a one-time thing, and i'll just use forms to let users upload by themselves. I just wanted to get the images i already collected in the DB.
Please correct me if i'm not writing the code properly, so here's what I would do to upload 1 image file to the db:

$image_path = some/folder/image.JPG;
$data = file_get_contents($image_path);

mysql_query("INSERT INTO {$table} SET data='$data 'pic='$pic'");

assuming already successfully connected to database and declared $table

I appreciate the help!
Derick

dagon

why are you putting them in to the db? There are no good reasons to do this and many why you shouldn't.

mikell

//make sure the image path is a string (need "'s around it)
$image_path = "some/folder/image.JPG";
$data = file_get_contents($image_path);

//make sure $pic is set...and your query is kinda messed up. You only use "SET" //when you are updating. 
//The insert syntax is different and the following may  or may not work depending 
//on how your table is defined.
mysql_query("INSERT INTO {$table} (data, pic) Values ('$data', '$pic')");

Like I said, never tried this but hope it works...good luck!

derickist

Thanks for the correction, I did have to add a small function for it to work:

function sql_safe($s)
{
if (get_magic_quotes_gpc())
$s = stripslashes($s);

return mysql_real_escape_string($s);

}
$data = file_get_contents($image_path);
$data = mysql_real_escape_string($data);

that took care of the slashes in the path and everything's working perfectly now.

I think i'll just use this script to populate a thumbnail database (each image file < 20 kb) and stick with name\location as dagon suggested. But as you can probably see, I'm a n00bie at web design, so that's why i'm trying to experiment as many different methods as possible, lolz.

Thanks again for help!
Derick