Question

I am just a beginner in php and have a PHP script (that i put together from snippets on the internet) that gets thumbnails and full-size images from folders. I want the images to sort by name, and they do but only on my local MAMP server and not on a server online. I am using the exact same php file for both.

For example, the order online of 3 images (from 12 total) is “View window”, “40 Trees”, “Orphans Walking”, as apposed to locally the sorting is “40 Trees, “Eva”, “For Caroline”, which is what I want.

                <?php

                $directory = 'images/slides/other/thumbnails';
                $link = 'images/slides/other/';

                $allowed_types=array('jpg','jpeg','gif','png');
                $file_parts=array();
                $ext='';
                $title='';
                $i=0;


                $dir_handle = @opendir($directory) or die("There is an error with your image directory!");

                while ($file = readdir($dir_handle)) 
                {
                    if($file=='.' || $file == '..') continue;

                    $file_parts = explode('.',$file);
                    $ext = strtolower(array_pop($file_parts));

                    $title = implode('.',$file_parts);

                    if(in_array($ext,$allowed_types))
                    {                                           


                    // Create a new row every four columns
                    if($i % 5 == 0 and $i != 0) 
                    {
                      echo "</tr><tr>";
                    }
                    echo '<td align="middle" valign="middle"><a class="fancybox-button" rel="fancybox-button" href="'.$link.'/'.$file.'" title="'.$title.'">
                                <img src="'.$directory.'/'.$file.'"/>
                                </a>
                            </td>
                            ';

                        $i++;
                    }
                }

                closedir($dir_handle);

                ?>

Can anyone help me out? Also, I would like to know if there is a simpler solution for getting the name of an image from the folder.

Answer 1

You need to pull in all the file names into an array, and then sort.

    <?php 

            $directory = 'images/slides/other/thumbnails'; 
            $link = 'images/slides/other/'; 

            $allowed_types=array('jpg','jpeg','gif','png'); 

            $aFiles = array();


            $dir_handle = @opendir($directory) or die("There is an error with your image directory!"); 

            while ($file = readdir($dir_handle))  
            { 
                if($file=='.' || $file == '..') continue; 

                $file_parts = explode('.',$file); 
                $ext = strtolower(array_pop($file_parts)); 

                $title = implode('.',$file_parts); 

                if(in_array($ext,$allowed_types)) 
                {                                            
                    $aFiles[] = $file;
                }

            } 

            closedir($dir_handle); 

            asort($aFiles);  // Use whichever sorting function suits you best!  http://www.php.net/manual/en/array.sorting.php

            $i=0; 
            foreach ($aFiles as $file) {

                $file_parts = explode('.',$file); 
                $ext = strtolower(array_pop($file_parts)); 

                $title = implode('.',$file_parts); 


                // Create a new row every four columns 
                if($i % 5 == 0 and $i != 0)  
                { 
                  echo "</tr><tr>"; 
                } 
                echo '<td align="middle" valign="middle"><a class="fancybox-button" rel="fancybox-button" href="'.$link.'/'.$file.'" title="'.$title.'"> 
                            <img src="'.$directory.'/'.$file.'"/> 
                            </a> 
                        </td> 
                        '; 

                    $i++; 
                } 
           }


            ?> 

NOTE: rough example only; to make it better, carry the “explode” as part of the array to save doing it twice. Not tested directly, so you may need to clean up typos.