Level 47
It depends on if you need SEO. If you don't need it, randomizing the file name is just fine.
1 like
Mar 7, 2018
2
Level 2
Do you randomize uploaded images names or tie them to meaningful IDs?
I'm at the point in a project where I will be uploading images that are associated with a specific controller. I don't foresee that they will ever be used outside this controller's context.
My general process is that I will upload the image and then store the image path/name into the associated table cell. The images will fit into a categorical system where each one will be (Front|Side|Back) + (Category) + (Level).
In naming the files, I am considering two options:
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On one hand I like the idea of meaningfully naming the images where an example would look like f-category_id-level_id.extension (i.e. f-1-2.jpg).
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On the other I think since I'm storing the name of the file in the database, just randomizing the filename works well too.
In the former, I like that it presents a clean and meaningful folder of files but I worry a little about maintenance. For example, if a category ID or Level ID gets changed, I need to be mindful of keeping file names consistent. In the latter, I have a messy image folder but it's completely independent of any changes to the categories or levels.
I am already leaning more towards one of the approaches but I was hoping to get some feedback before I commit to it. Any thoughts please?
Level 50
I tend to try and split up files a bit. Mostly to save a single directory ending up with 1000's & thousands of files which can make things quite slow. But that's only a concern if you're letting people upload/change lots of file. But yeah - you need to be a bit careful tying to specific user/category/whatever id's. Maybe you could just do a basic separation like :
/front/$random_filename
/side/$random_filename
/back/$random_filename
I guess it depends on how likely you think it is the category_id etc might change though (or any other random thing you might get asked to do down the line!). It's nice being able to do something like :
/front/2/3/image.jpg
Then from a filesystem level and your app level it's easy to know the file. Especially handy if a user says 'can I have yesterdays file back?' without needing to dig into the db as much to figure out filenames :-)
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