alternative image

[The Little Guy]

When an image doesn't exist at imageshack, imageshack sends this image to the client instead of a blank image.

 

 

 

how do they do it?

[premiso]

All images are ported to a central file, images.php  via .htaccess

 

From there they use the url to determine if the file exists, if not the images.php prints out the generic 404 for images. If it does it goes and retrieves the file and print that out instead.

[Orio]

Basically it should look like this:

 

<?php

if(!file_exists($_GET['filename']))
echo '<img src="default.jpg">';
else
echo '<img src="'.$_GET['filename'].'">';

?>

 

Orio.

[The Little Guy]

how would the .htaccess file look?

[premiso]

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.jpg$ images.php [nc]

 

Since I believe the best way to learn is by reading it yourself look

 

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/misc/rewriteguide.html

 

For a full guide on how to create a mod rewrite htaccess file (look at the rewritecond and rewriterule).

[The Little Guy]

OK, Here is what I have:

 

- DB

  - Members: stores file name

  - Guests: stores file name and directory (I have a few directory's the file is randomly placed into)

[The Little Guy]

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.jpg$ images.php [nc]

 

Will that still work, even if the images are being displayed on a foum? or on some other website?

[premiso]

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.jpg$ images.php [nc]

 

Will that still work, even if the images are being displayed on a foum? or on some other website?

 

Should it takes any request and routes it through images.php

[The Little Guy]

OK... I think there is something wrong.... I upload the image but I can not view it in the browser?

 

If I remove that code from the .htaccess file, then refresh the image, it displays, then If I put it back it doesn't display..

[premiso]

Remember that you need to use www.php.net/header  and www.php.net/readfile

 

The header you need to set the content-type to be jpeg and the readfile is to basically display the image from the file.

[The Little Guy]

so... if I have this:

 

<?php

if(!file_exists($_GET['filename']))
echo '<img src="http://tzfiles.com/imageNotFound.jpg">';
else
echo '<img src="'.$_GET['filename'].'">';

?>

 

 

Would I place it like this:

 

<?php
readfile('imageNotFound.jpg');
header('Content-type: images/jpeg');
if(!file_exists($_GET['filename']))
echo '<img src="http://tzfiles.com/imageNotFound.jpg">';
else
echo '<img src="'.$_GET['filename'].'">';

?>

[The Little Guy]

OK... Now the image displays, but even if the image does exist, it still displays the imageNotFound.jpg file...

[premiso]

<?php
header('Content-type: images/jpeg');
if(!file_exists($_GET['filename']))
readfile("http://tzfiles.com/imageNotFound.jpg");
else
readfile($_GET['filename']);

?>

 

In order for it to be interpreted as an image it must be read and written to the browser as an image. The img src is part of html, which is not part of an image file.

[The Little Guy]

OK... but images are still not displaying, even if they do exist, it is displaying the imageNotFound.jpg file instead.

[The Little Guy]

OK... I got it

[premiso]

Implement some debugging standards.

 

What is the filename printing out? Is it printing out the full path or not?

 

You should probably add the full path to it, as the .htaccess rewrite changes the directory to be where the images.php file is.

 

So even though the url is pointing to /images/etc.jpg the relative path would be /image.php so you would then need to add that into the get string.

 

The script will work like it is suppose to, you just have to have the full path to the file.

[The Little Guy]

It works now...

 

I need to add support for more than one file type though, like: gif and png.

 

What would I have to do to my htaccess file?

 

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.jpg$ images.php?filename=$1.jpg [nc]

[premiso]

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.(jpg|gif|png)$ images.php?filename=$1 [nc]

 

I am not sure how to send it in the filename...but that will send the gif and png files also to images.php

[The Little Guy]

Looks like it needs to look like this:

 

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*\.(jpg|gif|png))$ images.php?filename=$1 [nc]