Using PHP to output images, XML, Style sheets, etc

For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))

PHP is usually used to generate a stream of HTML to be sent to the browser, but if you use the header function within your page you can use it to send any other type you wish. For example, if I include

header("Content-type: image/jpeg");

then I can script the production of images. Easy? Yes, but two words or caution:

a) The header call must be included within your script before it generates a single byte of output. Rephrasing that, the < character of the initial <?php must be on the very first line and in the very first column of your script, and not a single byte may be output until you've made the header call.

b) If you select a format such as jpeg to send out, it's your responsibility to ensure that it's a valid jpeg image stream. More often than not, you'll do this with the Gd library, but if you're using PHP simply to upload images and manage their storage, that's not necessary. We have an example script to upload, store and retrieve images in a database in our solution centre.
(written 2006-01-15, updated 2006-06-09)

Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles

W704 - Web and Intranet - Cascading style sheets - putting it all together
  [501] .css - using PHP to make dynamic style sheets - (2005-11-21)
  [994] Training on Cascading Style Sheets - (2006-12-17)
  [996] Setting your colour theme through PHP - (2006-12-17)
  [1677] CSS training - Cascading Style Sheets (UK course) - (2008-06-15)
  [2223] CSS Style Diagrams - working out where attributes come from - (2009-06-08)
  [4037] Cascading Style Sheets and formatting your web page - (2013-03-10)

H118 - Generating CSS through PHP
H112 - PHP - Further Web Page and Network Handling
  [220] When to use Frames - (2005-02-19)
  [314] What language is this written in? - (2005-05-17)
  [345] Spotting a denial of service attack - (2005-06-12)
  [356] Sudoku helper or sudoku cheat - (2005-06-23)
  [372] Time calculation in PHP - (2005-07-08)
  [376] What brings people to my web site? - (2005-07-13)
  [410] Reading a news or blog feed (RSS) in your PHP page - (2005-08-12)
  [425] Caching an XML feed - (2005-08-26)
  [443] Server side scripting of styles to suit the browser - (2005-09-12)
  [451] Accessing a page via POST from within a PHP script - (2005-09-26)
  [484] Setting the file name for a downloaded document - (2005-11-03)
  [537] Daily Image Santafied - (2005-12-22)
  [542] Morning image, afternoon image - (2005-12-26)
  [603] PHP - setting sort order with an associative array - (2006-02-13)
  [675] Adding PHP tags to an old cgi program - (2006-04-08)
  [767] Finding the language preference of a web site visitor - (2006-06-18)
  [789] Hot answers in PHP - (2006-07-02)
  [847] Image maps for navigation - a straightforward example - (2006-08-28)
  [904] Of course I'll tell you by email - (2006-10-25)
  [936] Global, Superglobal, Session variables - scope and persistance in PHP - (2006-11-21)
  [1009] Passing GET parameters through Apache mod_rewrite - (2006-12-27)
  [1114] PHP Image upload script - (2007-03-21)
  [1183] Improving searches - from OR to AND? - (2007-05-11)
  [1187] Updating a page strictly every minute (PHP, Perl) - (2007-05-14)
  [1210] PHP header() function - uses and new restrictions - (2007-05-30)
  [1355] .php or .html extension? Morally Static Pages - (2007-09-17)
  [1379] Simple page password protection - PHP - (2007-10-04)
  [1485] Copyright and theft of images, bandwidth and members. - (2007-12-26)
  [1495] Single login and single threaded models - Java and PHP - (2008-01-04)
  [1496] PHP / Web 2 logging - (2008-01-06)
  [1505] Script to present commonly used images - PHP - (2008-01-13)
  [1515] Keeping staff up to date on hotel room status - (2008-01-22)
  [1518] Downloading data for use in Excel (from PHP / MySQL) - (2008-01-25)
  [1549] http, https and ajp - comparison and choice - (2008-02-22)
  [2632] Shipping a test harness with your class in PHP - (2010-02-12)
  [2679] How to build a test harness into your PHP - (2010-03-16)
  [2729] Uploading a document or image to its own URL via a browser - (2010-04-18)
  [2918] Downloading a report from the web for further local analysis - (2010-08-13)
  [3036] Sending out an email containing HTML from within a PHP page - (2010-11-07)
  [3432] 3 digit HTTP status codes - what are they, which are most common, which should be a concern? - (2011-09-11)
  [3540] Easy session example in PHP - keeping each customers data apart - (2011-12-06)
  [3568] Telling which ServerAlias your visitor used - useful during merging domains - (2012-01-04)
  [3918] Multiple page web applications - maintaining state - PHP - (2012-11-10)
  [4070] Passing variable between PHP pages - hidden fields, cookies and sessions - (2013-04-26)
  [4483] Moving from mysql to mysqli - simple worked example - (2015-05-03)

Back to
Open Source training from Well House Consultants

Previous and next
or
Horse's mouth home

Forward to
May all your screw-ups be big ones

Some other Articles

Instructions for bright people
NB ''Aspiration''
Combining similar rows from a MySQL database select
May all your screw-ups be big ones
Using PHP to output images, XML, Style sheets, etc
Open Source training from Well House Consultants
Merging pictures using PHP and GD
Smoke and mirrors
Python's Generator functions
The fencepost problem

4759 posts, page by page

Link to page ... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96 at 50 posts per page

This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

Link to Ezine home page (for reading).
Link to Blogging home page (to add comments).

You can Add a comment or ranking to this page

Like this? ??