(php) - helping writing a script for uploading images

Question

I am trying to upload an image to a directory on a server. i'm using the tutorial found at http://www.reconn.us/content/view/30/51/.

First, is that a good method for uploading images using PHP?

Second, I'm also going to store the info in a MySQL database. What is a good way to deal with images that have the same name that the user uploads? For example, if a user uploads a file 'test.png' 2x in a row, what should happen to the second filename? From the script above, both will get a unique filename, but how would I as the user access that image again? I couldn't just query because the only name I know was the duplicate name I gave it, and I definitely don't know the unique name the server gave it using the upload time...

Third, what is a good max file size for images?

Answer 1

You can report the unique URL back to the user after the upload so that the user will know where to find the image. So, the first test.png could be http://www.example.com/images/fjdklagjsdl.jpg and the second could be http://www.example.com/images/jklfsdlkj.jpg

You can also provide some kind of interface for users to view images they've uploaded. If you display a thumbnail of the uploaded image next to the image's unique filename, it will be easy for the user to identify which image is which.

Answer 2

This is the method I use:

1. Users upload images

2. Server saves the image with a unique (GUID or something) filename and stores - both - the unique generated filename and the original uploaded filename in a database

3. Images are linked to using either the original_filename, unique_filename or primary_key for the images table.

The images are taken from the server, and served using the original filename stored in the database. This way you avoid chances of conflicting filenames and you preserve the image's original filename. In addition, this allows you to build a search on the original_filename column for the user to use.

With this method, unique filenames never have to be exposed to the user, instead they're used to locate the image associated with a specific id or original_filename in the 'images` table.

Of course, if you don't care about giving the original filename to the image when it's displayed, you can just generate a unique filename whenever you want to store it.