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XmisterIS · 01-09-2013, 10:04 AM

I have a website which serves images in various sizes (e.g. wikipedia allows you to view the same image in different sizes). The images are uploaded by the users of the site.

Currently, I use PHP to process the uploaded images and store them in various sizes in a database (e.g. small/medium/large).

What is the best way to serve the images? I can think of:

1) retrieve each image from the database each time it is required. (*** This is the way I currently do it ***)

2) store the images as files in a folder in the public web directory and simply link to them.

3) Using the database-retrieval method, keep a store of previously-requested images in $_SESSION and serve them from $_SESSION each time they are required.

Option 2 is probably the most efficient, but I don't like the idea of having a writeable folder in the public web directory. Also, I suspect that doing this would leave the folder open to site-scrapers who could simply retrieve every image stored there.

01-09-2013, 10:04 AM	PM User \| #1
XmisterIS Regular Coder Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 241 Thanks: 51 Thanked 6 Times in 6 Posts	Best way of serving images? I have a website which serves images in various sizes (e.g. wikipedia allows you to view the same image in different sizes). The images are uploaded by the users of the site. Currently, I use PHP to process the uploaded images and store them in various sizes in a database (e.g. small/medium/large). What is the best way to serve the images? I can think of: 1) retrieve each image from the database each time it is required. (* This is the way I currently do it *) 2) store the images as files in a folder in the public web directory and simply link to them. 3) Using the database-retrieval method, keep a store of previously-requested images in $_SESSION and serve them from $_SESSION each time they are required. Option 2 is probably the most efficient, but I don't like the idea of having a writeable folder in the public web directory. Also, I suspect that doing this would leave the folder open to site-scrapers who could simply retrieve every image stored there.