Coding an Upload Images/Album site

Hey guys, I was wondering how difficult it would be to program/code a website that is similar to www.webshots.com, but just the upload image albums part. Basically, I want to possible for people to simply upload their images from their digital cameras (without having to configure their computers or digital cameras etc.) onto the site and the site automatically creates an album out of them so the person who took the pictures can easily show their friends/family. I am assuming a database is needed for a place where all the images are stored? - not 100% positive though..

Also, I would like an estimate on about how much you think this would cost to do.

Thanks and I'd appreciate as much feedback as possible,
Matt

how does upload image albums work at webshots? i'm too lazy to look it up heh heh
just taking a break from some work

you want the program to access your digital camera directly from the server?
what languages are you planning to use? PHP is only server side if PHP is what you have in mind. to access your camera on your local machine directly you will need something client side or maybe a JAVA applet (not entirely sure if it can do that) or something like that

btw, don't store the actual image in the database, store a reference to the image on the servers HDD in the db along with any meta data of that image.

I am not quite sure how it works at webshots myself but I know that people simply take pictures on their digital camera, then I think its safe to assume that they connect the camera/memory stick to the computer using USB and then just upload the pictures to the site and it automatically creates an album for them.

You can't do that without some cleint side application AFAIK.

hmm alright so it would be a lot more complicated than i thought? Hmm.. alright, I guess I'll think of a new idea then. Thanks for the input guys... unless you have any more suggestions

Matt

Actaully that would be easy thing to accomplish

You would need

Mysql database - obviously
php experiance, or hire someone
imae uploader, thats about it
and a registration form

u just go like this:

user signs up.. they upload an image u store the info into a mysql database like so

user_images
owner img_url date
zeek hi.gif july 11

and then select their photos from the database

and if u r making "albums" that would be a bit more difficult, u would just have to add

album to the above table, and they would need to enter the album to upload into that certian album

Zeek, thanks I really appreciate that. I am not really that familiar with some of the things that you are mentioning but with what you are saying a user would be able to sign up, then directly upload his/her images from their digital camera right onto the website? I would want the images to be displayed similar to this http://www.webshots.com/g/55/41353-sh.html and that would be fine (a bunch of thumbnails on a single page that can be enlarged when clicked on... and the other similar features - i.e. a "Next Photo" etc.)

Matt

umm after they have downloaded the onto their computer...

image uploader = a form that a user enters the direct path from his computer onto, which uploades in a a specific folder onto ur webserver

Alright, I see... what if I wanted them to upload an entire folder that contained the many images so they did not have to upload each image by itself?

Thanks for your help once again,
Matt

I have no idea, i think that would require FTP, because you cant upload uncompressed folders through a form uploader.