Image loaded from a PHP script isn't displayed in ImageView

Question

I want to fill an ImageView with an image saved on my localhost. I can display it in a browser fine but it doesn't get displayed in my ImageView.

PHP script to display image:

<?php
include('connect_db.php');

    $id = $_GET['id'];

    $path = 'Profile_Images/'.$id.'.jpg';

        echo '<img src='.$path.' border=0>';

?>

Here is my android code to download an image from a URL:

URL url;
try {
    url = new URL("http://192.168.1.13/get_profile_image.php?id=145");
    new DownloadImage(this).execute(url);
} catch (MalformedURLException e) {
    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
    e.printStackTrace();
}
}

@Override
public void imageDownloaded(final Bitmap downloadedImage) {

runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
     public void run() {

        ImageView imageView = (ImageView)findViewById(R.id.imageView);
        imageView.setImageBitmap(downloadedImage);
    }
});
}

When I put the URL to some other image it works fine but mine never gets loaded, any ideas?

Also, the following code works but I have a feeling its bad practice..

    URL url;
    try {
        url = new URL("http://192.168.1.13/Profile_Images/145.jpg");
        new DownloadImage(this).execute(url);
    } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

Where 145 would be a variable.

Edit

Any reasons for the down-votes would be appreciated!

Apparently, you're using the wrong URL, since the correct URL works. Check whether the first URL works in a browser; if not, then that's your problem. — 323go, Apr 15 '13 at 12:40
The script runs fine in a browser but doesn't fill the ImageView — TomSelleck, Apr 15 '13 at 12:45
Does it "run fine" with both urls? You do see that they are different, right? Also, your php snippet has a reference to `.gif` -- are those `.gif` files? — 323go, Apr 15 '13 at 12:49
Sorry I had that for testing, I have another image called 145.gif which also loads in the browser — TomSelleck, Apr 15 '13 at 12:50
I'm almost certain that `ImageView` doesn't support `.gif`, but it would bear researching. — 323go, Apr 15 '13 at 12:54
@323go Just after running 11684's PHP script, .gif works fine. — TomSelleck, Apr 15 '13 at 13:04

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:45

It's pretty simple, actually. When you send a request to http://192.168.1.13/get_profile_image.php?id=145 a string (<img src=Profile_Images/'.$id.'.jpg border=0>) is sent back. Because the DownloadImage class doesn't parse HTML (it wants raw image data) it doesn't know where the actual image is. Two solutions:

Your 'bad practice' approach
Use this PHP script instead to echo the raw image data:

PHP:

$id = $_GET['id'];
$path = 'Profile_Images/'.$id.'.jpg';

$type = 'image/jpeg';
header('Content-Type:'.$type);
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($path));
readfile($path);

EDIT: forgot to credit someone: the above code is taken from here (with adapted variable names): https://stackoverflow.com/a/1851856/1087848

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 15 '13 at 12:56

2

Your PHP code will print out something along the lines of:

<img src=Profile_Images/145.jpg border=0>

Not only is this malformed HTML, but it is a text output. Your other URL, http://192.168.1.13/Profile_Images/145.jpg points to an image file, from which the data your receive is an image, not an HTML string.

You should consider having your PHP return a JSON response with the URL of the image ID, and then running DownloadImage on that URL. The advantage this has over a raw echo is that you can easily expand the solution to return other types of files, and even return an array of files.

answered Apr 15 '13 at 12:56

Raghav Sood

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@11684 Hard to believe no one noticed it for 20+ minutes :P You got my upvote – Raghav Sood Apr 15 '13 at 12:57
1

Yeah, thought so too, after seeing SO spotting the most obscure syntax ambiguities. – 11684 Apr 15 '13 at 12:59

Image loaded from a PHP script isn't displayed in ImageView

2 Answers2