PHP to store images in MySQL or not?

I have built a small web application in PHP where users must first log in. Once they have logged in, I intend on showing a small thumbnail as part of their "profile".

I will have to ensure the image is below a particular size to conserve space, or ensure it is a particular resolution, or both, or even perhaps use something like image magick to scale it down.
Not sure what the best approach for that is yet, any ideas welcome.

Also, I have been trying to work out if it is better to store the image in the users table of MySQL as a blob, or maybe a separate images table with a unique id, and just store the appropriate image id in the users table, or simply save the uploaded file on the server (via an upload page as well) and save the file as theUsersUniqueUsername.jpg. Best option?

I found a tutorial on saving images to mysql here: http://www.phpriot.com/articles/images-in-mysql

I am only a hobby programmer, and haven't ever done anything like this before, so examples, and/or a lot of detail is greatly appreciated.

Solution 1:

Always depends of context, but usually, I store a user image on the filesystem in a folder called /content/user/{user_id}.jpg and try to bother the database as little as possible.

Solution 2:

I would recommend storing the image as a file and then have the file URI in the database. If you store all the images in the database, you might have some problems with scaling at a later date.

Check out this answer too:

Microsoft's advice for SQL Server used to be, for speed and size, store images in the file system, with links in the database. I think they've softened their preference a bit, but I still consider it a better idea certainly for size, since it will take up no space in the database.

Solution 3:

The overhead using BLOB is a lot less than most people would have you believe, especially if you set it up right. If you use a separate server just running the DB to store binary files then you can in fact use no file-system at all and avoid any overhead from the file-system

That said the easiest/best way unless you have a couple of servers to yourself is storing them in the filesystem

• Do not store the absolute URL of the file in your DB, just the unique part (and possibly a folder or two), e.g. 2009/uniqueImageName.jpg or just uniqueImageName.jpg. Then in your pages just add the host and other folders onto the front, that way you have some flexibility in moving your images - all you'll need to change is a line or two in your PHP/ASP.NET page.

• There is no need to store outside the document root for security - a .htaccess file with DENY FROM ALL will work the same and provide more flexibility

• No need to 'shunt' images so much for security, just have a getImage.php page or something, and then instead of inserting the actual URL in the src of the image, use something like getImage.php?file=uniqueImageName.jpg. Then the getImage.php file can check if the user is authorised and grab the image (or not).

• Use a name which is guaranteed to be unique (preferably an integer i.e. primary key) when storing, some file-system (i.e. Windows) are case-insensitive, so JoeBloggs.jpg and joebloggs.jpg are unique for the database, but not for the file-system so one will overwrite another.

• Use a separate table for the images, and store the primary key of the image in the users table. If you ever want to add more fields or make changes in future it will be easier - it's also good practice.

If you are worried about SEO and things like that, store the image's original file name in another field when you are uploading, you can then use this in your output (such as in the alt tag).