PHP Image Host V1
25th March 2009 – Version 1.4 BETA is now available in the support forum
This new version requires PHP 5 – sorry, no more support for php 4. Until its out of beta I’ll keep the links and information below for V1.3
Visit the Support forum for more information.
PHP image host v1.3 is now open source
Installation service now available
Version 1.3 Now Available (23rd October 2008) Upgrade Instructions.
Support forum now available too.
30th October Bug Fix – V1.3.2 contains fixes to 3 files. Download the phpimagehost-upgrade-1.3.2 to upgrade from version 1.3 only.
Originally released back in 2004 as a paid script, my image hosting script (the imaginatively named PHP Image Host) is now available again (legally) for free. An eagerly awaited version 2 was in the works before circumstances somewhat abruptly forced me to abandon it without a chance to inform the existing users of what was going on. I’d like to apologise to any of them who happen to read this.
The script should work on both php 4 and php 5 servers.
Version 1.3 (demo (now only available for 1.4)) has a number of new features. Here’s the info about the basic features of the script from the original site:
Php Image Host is a feature-packed set of php scripts that let you run your own free and paid image hosting business website.
Members can register for free or paid (with PayPal IPN integration) image hosting accounts where they can upload, rename and resize their images, as well as create galleries to share their images with their friends.
The fully-featured admin control panel makes it easy for you to administer your members’ accounts, with quick access to uploaded images, members, a payments history and more.
Php Image Host Overview
- Fully automated image hosting business site. Php Image Host is designed to make managing your image hosting business as simple as possible. User signups, subscriptions and password reminders are fully automated by the scripts. Bandwidth monitoring, downgrading users who don’t pay, and restricting image views to accounts that go over their bandwidth limit is all automated. Just sit back and watch your business grow.
- Powerful image hosting features. Your users will love the ability to upload multiple images at once, rename, resize and delete their images, and view thumbnails together with URLs and HTML code to link to each of their images from their own password protected control panel.
- Easy to brand. Almost all of the design and layout of Php Image Host is managed through CSS styles defined in one file, or in the header and footer scripts used on each page, making it easy to change the design to your own preferences. The text content on all pages is editable from within the admin control panel, so you can make changes without needing to edit any files.
- Multi-featured admin control panel. The powerful admin control panel lets you manage all aspects of your site, including site settings, members, payments and uploaded images. Set file upload, image size, storage space and monthly bandwidth limits for free and paid accounts.
- Automated recurring subscription payments. Php Image Host uses PayPal Instant Payment Notification to automatically manage payments from your users. Users can create monthly, 3-monthly, 6-monthly or yearly subscriptions for your services. PayPal automatically sends new payments when they are due, and the script logs that they have been paid.
- Build traffic and revenue. Automatically add your own branding message / watermark to images uploaded by your members – every time a member shares an image, they are advertising your service. Display banner ads on every page of your site and on users’ image galleries with the built-in banner ad manager.
- Everything you need. Php Image Host Includes additional pages for terms & conditions, frequently asked questions, a privacy policy and even a contact form. The text on these pages can be edited to suit your needs via the admin control panel.
Admin Features
Php Image Host has tons of admin features designed to make maintenance and security of your image hosting site as easy to manage as possible.
All admin features can be managed from your browser via the password protected admin control panel.
- Password protected admin control panel. The Php Image Host admin control panel allows you to edit almost all of the settings of your site from your web browser. Just login to the secure cp using your username and password. Some of the settings you can change are: admin username and password, the name of your site, the maximum width and height of generated thumbnail images, and the branding text to add to images along with text size and color.
- Powerful user management. Display a list of members filtered by name, username, email, date joined, last login date, account status (unconfirmed, confirmed, suspended), account type (free of paid), and exceeding bandwidth allocation. The list of members shows at a glance each member’s username, name, email address, join and last login dates, as well as total images uploaded, space and bandwidth used, and the limits of their account, as well as their account type and status. The list of members can be ordered by name, username, date joined or last logged in, email address, account status, account type, and total bandwidth, images or space used. The admin can bulk change member accounts, upgrade or downgrade accounts, change member’s account status and delete members with just a couple of button clicks. You can create new member accounts yourself, as well as edit details of existing member accounts (username, name, email address, password, etc).
- Easy image management. Quickly view the images uploaded by your members as thumbnails, together with details of filesize, image format and bandwidth usage for each image. The list of images can be filtered by image name, date uploaded, uploader (username and i.p. address), bandwidth usage and more. Images that break the terms and conditions of your website can be deleted in bulk with just a couple of mouse clicks, and the i.p. addresses and or users who uploaded them banned from your site.
- Account membership subscription payments history. Php Image Host uses PayPal Instant Payment Notification to record membership subscription payments, and automatically upgrades member’s accounts. You can filter the list of payments received by date, username, PayPal email address and transaction id#. Full details of any payments can be viewed with a click of the mouse.
- Setup free and paid account features. You can setup the following limits for each type of account from the plans page of your admin control panel: images allowed, storage space, bandwidth allocation, maximum uploaded image filesize, width and height, allow your members to resize and rename their images, maximum simultaneous uploads, automatically resize large images, automatically convert all images to jpeg format, set the quality (compression vs. filesize) for jpeg images, and the number of image galleries each member can create. Additionally, you can specify a branding message to add to the bottom of each image uploaded, and apply this to free and / or paid accounts.
- Security & Maintenance. Your admin control panel lets you ban the i.p. addresses of users who abuse your service with a click of a button. An option to view only the latest uploaded images lets you check at a glance if a user has uploaded images that break your terms (illegal, adult, etc), and allows you to delete the violating images and ban the user / i.p addresses with a couple of mouse clicks. Disable the option for new members to join, or temporarily disallow all image uploads just by checking a checkbox.
- Edit most of the page content that appears on your site. Most of the pages of your site is stored in the database and is editable from the admin control panel. No need to mess around with ftp if you just want to change a few words. Use special placeholder “tags” that will be replaced with the relevant variables, so if you make changes to plan features, etc, it is updated automatically throughout your image hosting site.
- Edit email templates. Edit the subject and message templates for all emails automatically sent to members by your site; you can add your own message, as well as affiliate links and ads to the following email messages: new account welcome email, password reminder email, monthly bandwidth allowance exceeded notification email, payment received confirmation email, and the emails sent by members to their friends containing links to their images.
- Integrated banner ad manager. By default, Php Image Host is set up to display banner ads at the top and bottom of every page. You can create and delete the banners that are displayed on the banners page of the admin control panel. Banners are displayed in rotation. Maximize your revenue!
User Features
The user features of Php Image Host allow your members to upload and manage their images with ease. Each member has their own control panel to upload, view, rename, resize and delete their images as well as create image galleries.
User sign-up, password reminders and account upgrade payments are all automated by the script.
- User Accounts. Users need to register for an account before they can upload images. Registration processing is handled automatically by the script, and users have to respond to an email to confirm their email address is valid (this option can be disabled by the admin). Users login to their control panel using a username and password they
choose when the sign up. Password reminders can be requested and automatically emailed to members by them submitting their email into a password reminder form. - User control panel. Thumbnail previews of all images the user uploads are listed alongside filesize and bandwidth usage as well as the image urls and html code required to link to their images from forums or web pages. Users can select one or more images and quickly email the urls to their friends.
- Image Management. Once logged in to their account, users can upload multiple images at once*, delete, rename* and resize* their uploaded images. Users’ current bandwidth and storage space usage together with their limits are displayed on every page when logged in (* options can be restricted by the site admin).
- Image Galleries. Images can be organized into “galleries” which can then be browsed. Users can quickly email the urls of their galleries to their friends for easy sharing.
- Account upgrades. Users can upgrade their accounts for additional features and to increase their image storage and bandwidth usage limits (features and limits set by the site admin). Users pay for their accounts with PayPal. PayPal Instant Payment Notification processing is handled by the Php Image Host scripts so all account upgrades are handled automatically. Users can pay monthly, 3-monthly, 6-monthly or yearly using PayPal subscriptions (repeat payments are automatically sent by PayPal).
Installation Guide
Php Image Host is easy to install. Just follow the instructions on this page to have your copy of Php Image Host up and running in 10 minutes.
Installation service now available
Follow the steps below to install your copy of Php Image Host:
- Create a mysql database on your site to use with Php Image Host. If you do not know how to do this ask your web hosting company.
- Import the database table structure and default data contained in the file “/install/sql.sql” into this database using PhpMyAdmin or your favourite mysql admin software is. If you do not know how to do this, please ask your web hosting company.
- Edit the file “/includes/db.inc.php” with the settings for connecting to your database (mysql host, username, password and database name).
- Upload all the files in the Php Image Host distribution to your web server’s public_html or www directory.
- Set the permissions on the “/images” and “/thumbs” directories so that php scripts can write to them. If you do not know how to do this, please ask your web hosting company.
- Browse to http://www.yoursite.com/install/index.php – if you have successfully followed the steps above, you should be presented with the setup page for Php Image Host. Fill in all the relevant fields and submit the form to complete setup of your image hosting site.
- If the install process has worked, you should be able to login to your admin area at http://www.yoursite.com/admin/index.php using the username admin and the password password. Please change the admin username and password immediately on the settings page at http://www.yoursite.com/admin/settings.php.
- If its all working correctly, please delete the “/install” directory from your server, then finish editing any settings you want to in the admin area.
- On the admin settings page, edit the branding text (that appears on uploaded images) to show your url and slogan.
- On the plans page in the admin control panel, set the prices you want to charge for monthly, 3-monthly, 6-monthly, and yearly subscriptions.
- Congratulations! Your new image hosting site is setup and ready to go :)
