Question

When user upload image I resize that image in 3 different sizes. I can’t decide what is better option:

1) Save image path in one column in database like: User9876/ImageName and extension in another column. When I get user profile data from database I have business object with three properties for different image size. And in code I fill this properties by adding extension to image path from database like:

User9876/ImageName_Original.jpg
User9876/ImageName_Small.jpg
User9876/ImageName_Smallest.jpg

2) Or it is better to have three columns in database for each size?

Answer 1

Couple of recommendations:

1. Don’t store the extension separately, unless you plan on querying for particular extensions. Just adds more complexity for no real gain.

2. I would store the image size code as an id in your images table. This way you can update/edit image codes without having to run an update statement on your entire table.

   create table image (
   id int(11) unsigned not null auto_increment,
   path varchar(255) not null,
   size_code_id smallint(3) not null,
   PRIMARY KEY (id)
   )Engine=MyISAM Default Charset=utf8;

Example row:

1 | user9876/imagename_og.jpg | 1
2 | user9876/imagename_me.jpg | 2
3 | user9876/imagename_sm.jpg | 3

This design will allow you to query for the ‘small’ image without having to parse the filename, yet you can still make the distinction of a small image from medium and original images on the filesystem.