Store and Retrieve Image from MySQL Database using PHP

Generally, when we upload image file in PHP, the uploaded image is stored in a
directory of the server and the respective image name is stored in the database. At
the time of display, the file is retrieved from the server and the image is rendered on the
web page.
But, if you don’t want to consume the space of the server, the file can be stored in
the database only. You can upload an image without storing the file physically on the
server using the MySQL database. It’s very easy to store and retrieve images from the
database using PHP and MySQL.
If you’re concerned about the server space and need free space on your server, you can
insert the image file directly in the database without uploading it to the directory of the
server. This procedure helps to optimize the server space because the image file content
is stored in the database rather than the server. In this tutorial, we will show you how to
store image files into the MySQL database and retrieve images from the database
using PHP.
Before getting started to integrate file upload with the database, take a look at the file
structure.
store_retrieve_image_from_database/
├── dbConfig.php
├── index.php
├── upload.php
├── view.php
└──
css/
└── style.css

Insert Image File in MySQL

MySQL has a BLOB (binary large object) data type that can hold a large amount of
binary data. The BLOB data type is perfect for storing image data in the database.
In MySQL, four BLOB types are available – TINYBLOB, BLOB,
MEDIUMBLOB, and LONGBLOB. The LONGBLOB data type is perfect to store the
image file data.

Create Database Table

To store the file content, a table is required in the database. The following SQL creates
an images table with the LONGBLOB data type field in the MySQL database.
CREATE TABLE `images` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`image` longblob NOT NULL,
 `created` datetime NOT NULL DEFAULT current_timestamp(),
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci;

Database Configuration (dbConfig.php)

The dbConfig.php file is used to connect and select the database. Specify the database
host ($dbHost), username ($dbUsername), password ($dbPassword), and name
($dbName) as per your MySQL database credentials.
<?php 
// Database configuration 
$dbHost     = "localhost"; 
$dbUsername = "root"; 
$dbPassword = "root"; 
$dbName     = "codexworld"; 
 
// Create database connection 
$db = new mysqli($dbHost, $dbUsername, $dbPassword, $dbName); 
 
// Check connection 
if ($db->connect_error) { 
    die("Connection failed: " . $db->connect_error); 
}

Image Upload Form

Create an HTML form with a file input field to select an image file for upload. Make
sure the <form> tag contains the following attributes.
 method="post"
 enctype="multipart/form-data"

<form action="upload.php" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">

<label>Select Image File:</label>
<input type="file" name="image">
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Upload"></form>

Store Image File in Database (upload.php)

The upload.php file handles the image upload and database insertion process.
 Check whether the user selects an image file to upload.
 Retrieve the content of image file by the tmp_name using PHP
file_get_contents() function.
 Insert the binary content of the image in the database using PHP and MySQL.
 Show the image uploading status to the user.
<?php
// Include the database configuration file 
require_once 'dbConfig.php';

// If file upload form is submitted
$status = $statusMsg = '';
if(isset($_POST["submit"])){
    $status = 'error';
    if(!empty($_FILES["image"]["name"])) {
        // Get file info
        $fileName = basename($_FILES["image"]["name"]);
        $fileType = pathinfo($fileName, PATHINFO_EXTENSION);
        
        // Allow certain file formats
        $allowTypes = array('jpg','png','jpeg','gif');
        if(in_array($fileType, $allowTypes)){
            $image = $_FILES['image']['tmp_name'];
            $imgContent = addslashes(file_get_contents($image));
        
            // Insert image content into database
            $insert = $db->query("INSERT into images (image, created) VALUES (
'$imgContent', NOW())");
            
            if($insert){
                $status = 'success';
                $statusMsg = "File uploaded successfully.";
            }else{
                $statusMsg = "File upload failed, please try again.";
            } 
        }else{
            $statusMsg = 'Sorry, only JPG, JPEG, PNG, & GIF files are allowed to upload.';
        }
    }else{
        $statusMsg = 'Please select an image file to upload.';
    }
}

// Display status message
echo $statusMsg;
?>

Retrieve image from database (view.php)

In the view.php file, we will retrieve the image content from the MySQL database and
list them on the web page.
 The data, charset, and base64 parameters in the src attribute, are used to display
image BLOB from MySQL database.
<?php
// Include the database configuration file 
require_once 'dbConfig.php';

// Get image data from database
$result = $db->query("SELECT image FROM images ORDER BY id DESC");
?>
<?php if($result->num_rows > 0){ ?>
    <div class="gallery">
        <?php while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()){ ?>
            <img src="data:image/jpg;charset=utf8;base64,<?
php echo base64_encode($row['image']); ?>" />
        <?php } ?>
    </div>
<?php }else{ ?>
    <p class="status error">Image(s) not found...</p>
<?php } ?>