How to store/display images with SQL Server 2000

Question

Hi everybody, I'm totally new to ColdFusion, and creating a
sample project, where a user would enter in a person's info and
upload a picture of that person. I trying to get my app to save
that image to SQL Server database and then to display that pic.
Currently, it "seems" that I'm able to save to SQL server (my table
saves user info but all values in my photo column says
<binary>-I don't know if that is correct), but I can't seem
to get image and display it on my cf page. I have pasted portions
of my code below.
I've been hammering away at this but no luck, so Any comments
are very well appreciated, example code would be great!
Thank you so much,
noijet
# 1.) I have a 'User Info Entry' page that submits to page
#2:
<cfform...>
<input name="fileToUpload" id="fileToUpload" type="file"
size="64"/>
</cfform>
# 2.) This page does the actual saving, this doesn't output
any errors but am I saving the image to SQL server correctly? I
have no idea really how to save images to database, so please
advise or possibly provide example code. Afterwards, it goes to
page #3 to display confirmation page that data has been saved.
<cfif isDefined("Form.fileToUpload") and Form.fileToUpload
neq "">
<cfset uploadPath =
GetDirectoryFromPath(GetBaseTemplatePath()) & "uploads\">
<cfif not DirectoryExists(uploadPath)>
<cfdirectory action="create" directory="#uploadPath#">
</cfif>
<cffile action="upload" fileField="fileToUpload"
destination="#uploadPath#" nameConflict="overwrite">
<cfset imagefile= "uploads\\" & cffile.serverFile
& "'">
</cfif>
<cfquery name="qInsertPerson" dataSource="HRP">
Execute insertPerson
N'#Trim(FORM.sLastname)#',N'#Trim(FORM.sFirstname)#',N'#Trim(FORM.sMiddle)#',N'#Trim(FORM .sAlias)#',
'#imagefile#'
</cfquery>
<cflocation url = "savePersonResult.cfm" addToken =
"No">
#3.) This confirmation page displays last user entered and a
picture of the user. The user info retrieved from SQL server is
displaying correctly but the picture is not displaying(just a small
red 'x' box). The image calls another getPersonPhoto.cfm file to
display image.
<cfquery name="lastPerson" datasource="HRP">
Exec getLastRow
</cfquery>
<cfoutput query="lastPerson">
#firstName# #middle# #lastName# was added to our Persons
list. That Person has been given id: #id# <br>
Thank you for your assistance and cooperation.
<img src="getPersonPhoto.cfm?id=71" border="0" width="128"
height="180">
</cfoutput>
#4.) This is .cfm file that only displays image of person
<cfsetting enablecfoutputonly="Yes">
<cfsetting showdebugoutput="No">
<cfquery name="getBlob" datasource="HRP">
SELECT TOP 1 photo FROM Persons WHERE id = 71
</cfquery>
<cfheader name="content-disposition"
value="Inline;filename=ExamplePerson.jpg">
<cfcontent type="image/jpeg; charset=iso-8859-1">
<cfoutput>#tostring(tobinary(getBlob.photo))#</cfoutput>
Note: In my ColdFusion admin, I checked "Enable ... BLOB's"
and set Blob Buffer to 20000

Answer 1

Regarding doing the actual saving, here are some other things
to consider:
* a max on the image's file size
* check if it really is an image
* don't use nameconflict="overwrite". consider
nameconflict="MAKEUNIQUE"
* delete uploaded image on file system after insert into db
Also, on the cfm page that returns an image, try putting the
cfcontent tag and the cfoutput tag on one line.
<cfheader name="Content-Type" value="image/jpeg">
<cfcontent
type="image/jpeg"><cfoutput>#getBlob.photo#</cfoutput>
Good luck!