PHP-generated image WITH html?

[StevenOliver]

Always had trouble echoing php-generated image with HTML. For example, a QR code generator converts text to a QR code "png" image (the QR image then appears on a page of its own with nothing else.) However, I want the image embedded in my html page like this:

echo 'hello this is my image'. QRcode::png("some words here");

I can write the image to a file, then have my html page read the file... but there should be a more direct way of echoing the image in html without the extra step of having to create files to be created stored and then read.

[Barand]

If, say, QR.php is the file that creates the image and renders it to the screen

QR.php

<?php
$im = imagecreate(50,50);

// draw image here

header("Content-type: image/png");
imagepng($im);
imagedestroy($im);
?>

then in your html page

<img src="QR.php">

 

Edited October 28, 2018 by Barand

[StevenOliver]

Okay, I understand. the "qr.php" page becomes the image itself! Very nice! Thank you!

Question: Using your example, are the parameters supposed to be sent via  "GET" like this:

$text_to_be_encoded = "hello here is some text to turn into a QR code";
echo '<img src="QR.php?parameters='.$text_to_be_encoded.'">';

If that is the correct way, do I have to worry about "special characters" should I need something like this:

// urlencode it (preserves code)
// base64 encode it (in case there are spaces in the text)
$text_to_be_encoded = base64_encode(urlencode('hello here is some text'));
echo '<img src="QR.php?parameters='.$text_to_be_encoded.'">';

What do you think?

 

 

Edited October 28, 2018 by StevenOliver
learned to put PHP code into post with <>

[Barand]

urlencode() should suffice

$txt = urlencode("Text to be encoded");

echo "<img src=\"QR.php?parameter=$txt\">";

 

[StevenOliver]

Thank you! I understand. URLencode takes care of spaces! Thank you. Newbies (like me) seem to want to over-complicate things.You have the gift (and know-how and experience) of being able to make things simple and clean -- the way PHP is supposed to be!

[kicken]

For small images, another alternative would be to generate a data: url using the image data.  For example, assuming QRCode::png returns the binary data for your image:

$imageData = QRCode::png('Text to encode');

echo 'Here is your QR Code: <img src="data:image/png;base64,' . base64_encode($imageData) . '">';

 

[StevenOliver]

58 minutes ago, kicken said:

For small images, another alternative would be to generate a data: url using the image data.  For example, assuming QRCode::png returns the binary data for your image:

$imageData = QRCode::png('Text to encode');

echo 'Here is your QR Code: <img src="data:image/png;base64,' . base64_encode($imageData) . '">';

 

Oh wow, I wish this would have worked! I tried it just now and I remember trying something similar a while ago... but it doesn't work.

The first part "$imageData = QRcode::png('Text to encode')" yields a bunch of weird characters in my browser, and then the <img src= part yields a blank image placeholder.

I'll have to go through the qr coding scripts to see if QRCode::png returns binary data. Thank you anyway, though!