Attempting to display an image in PHP from a MySQL database - php

Question

I attempted to display the image using PHP with the following code
<?php
header('Content-type: image/png');
$port = "*";
$server = "*:".$port;
$dbname ="*";
$user = "*";
$conn = mysql_connect ("$server", "$user", "$pass") or die ("Connection
Error or Bad Port");
mysql_select_db($dbname) or die("Missing Database");
$speakerPic = $_POST['speakerPic'];
$query = "SELECT Speaker.speaker_picture AS image FROM Speaker JOIN Contact c USING(contact_id)
WHERE c.lname = '";
$query .= $speakerPic."';";
$result = mysql_query($query,$dbname);
$result_data = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC);
echo $result_data['image'];
?>
I keep on receiving this error, The image “.../query2.php” cannot be displayed because it contains errors.
Sorry to keep on bugging you guys, but can anyone tell what the problem is?

Answer 1

Not going to lie, there is a lot of bad with the OP code.
You should be pulling images from the database by id, not some string
You are not sanitizing the var being used in the query
You are not serving a default image if one doesn't exist
Also, I would suggest storing file uris in your database, not the actual image (blob). You should store a pointer to an image on your filesystem.
Not going to clean up the code too much, just make it less bad. I'd suggest something along these lines (untested):
// Utility.php
class Utility
{
/**
*
* #param mixed $id is abstract, could be name or an actual id
* #return string?
*/
public static function getImage($id)
{
try {
$port = "*";
$server = "*:".$port;
$dbname ="*";
$user = "*";
$conn = mysql_connect ("$server", "$user", "$pass");
if (!$conn) {
throw new Exception("Connection Error or Bad Port");
}
if (!mysql_select_db($dbname)) {
throw new Exception("Missing Database");
}
$query = "SELECT Speaker.speaker_picture AS image FROM Speaker JOIN Contact c USING(contact_id) WHERE c.lname = " . mysql_real_escape_string($id). ";";
$result = mysql_query($query,$dbname);
$result_data = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC);
if (!isset($result_data['image'])) {
throw new Exception('Image not found');
}
echo $result_data['image'];
} catch Exception($e) {
error_log($e->getMessage();
return file_get_contents('/path/to/some/default/image.png');
}
}
}
// image.php
require_once 'Utility.php';
header('Content-type: image/png');
ob_start();
Utility::getImage($_POST['speakerPic']);
$image = ob_get_flush();
echo $image;