Storing Images in MySQL With PHP

Uploading Form and Table:

First off we need a HTML form that uploads images. If you are not familiar with making one then visit: HTML Upload Form

Then we need to create a table to our database. Table should contain unique identifier, blob for file data and image type.

Source code viewer
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `images` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `image` mediumblob NOT NULL,
  `type` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 AUTO_INCREMENT=1 ;
Programming Language: MySQL

Easy to understand tutorial on how to upload, store and display images in mysql database.

Uploading Data:

Now we need a script to receive and store the image.

Source code viewer
#get the image files content and type
$content = file_get_contents($_FILES['file_name']['tmp_name']);
$type = $_FILES['file_name']['type'];
#upload $content and $type
$link = mysql_connect('localhost', 'mysql_user', 'mysql_password');
if (!$link) die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
 
$query = 'INSERT INTO images (type, content) VALUES (`'.$type.'`, `'.$content.'`)';
 
$result = mysql_query($query);
if ($result) {
	echo 'Image successfully uploaded.';
}
 
mysql_close($link);
Programming Language: PHP

Displaing the image:

First you have to get image from database. Then set header for right content type. Print the content and done.

Source code viewer
<?php
$id = 1;
$result = mysql_query('SELECT type, content FROM people WHERE id = '.$id);
if (!$result) {
	echo 'Could not run query: '.mysql_error();
	exit;
}
$row = mysql_fetch_row($result);
 
header('Content-type: '.$row[0]); #type
echo $row[1]; #content
?>
Programming Language: PHP

If you use get you can make images change by url variable.