Images used in your online store can be stored either in the database or on the file system.
You can select Images Location in the Administration menu to switch your X-Cart shop to store images (category icons, product thumbnails and/or detailed product images) in the database or on the file system. By default, all images are stored in the database. Storing images on the file system may be helpful if your database performance is poor or its size is limited.
IMPORTANT! If you want to move images from the database to the file system, make sure you specified the correct path to the place where your images will be stored (You should specify the path on the server where X-Cart is installed, not on your local machine). For UNIX users, make sure that this directory has world writable permissions (go to the specified directory and issue the command: chmod 0777).
It's strongly recommended to make a backup of your database before you proceed.
Picture 1: Images location.
Open 'Images Location' page in the admin area.
Use the drop-down box to change the storing place for a certain group of images (category icons, product thumbnails or detailed product images): select File system instead of Database.
Enter the absolute path to where the images will be stored on the local server (set write permissions by issuing the command: chmod 0777. After moving the images you can change the permissions back to 0644).
If you select 'Allow to store images only in the directory specified here' check box, all your images will be stored by default in the directory specified at the previous step. If you leave the check box empty, when uploading your images you will be able to choose a subdirectory of 'xcart/files' directory.
Specify the file size limit (enter 0 for 'unlimited').
Click on Submit.
When you move your images from the database to the file system, they are removed from the database and a value is assigned to the 'image_path' field that stores in the database the absolute path to the image file on the file system. When you upload the images from the file system to the database the image files are not removed and the value of the 'image_path' field is not changed.
You can view the images transferring log by clicking on the 'See Log file' link at the bottom of the form.
Displaying the images works so that if the images are stored in the database (where the binary code of the images is contained) but the system fails to find the required image in the database (because of the unsuccessful uploading), you get the file from image_path. If there is not such a file, you get the default image (defined in config.php).
Please note:
After X-Cart installation in the directory 'xcart/files' a special .htaccess file is created containing Apache webserver directives that forbid access to 'xcart/files' directory from the Web. This file is perceived only by Apache webserver and its derivatives. Microsoft IIS webserver ignores this file.
.htaccess is used because 'xcart/files' directory can be used by administrators and providers to store various files for the online store, for example, CSV files for product import and so on.
If you want to use pictures stored on the file system inside the directory 'xcart/files' (in 'xcart/files' itself or lower in the directory tree - for example, in 'xcart/files/myimages'), you can do one of the following:
If you are absolutely sure that neither you nor your providers will use 'xcart/files' to store files of any importance, you can simply remove the .htaccess file.
You can re-configure the .htaccess file according to the pattern below:
---------------------
Order allow,deny
<FilesMatch "\.(gif|jpe?g|png)$">
Allow from all
</FilesMatch>
Deny from all
---------------------
Configuring the .htaccess file in this way makes *.gif, *.jpg, *.jpeg and *.png files accessible from the Web, while access to the other files inside xcart/files' directory remains denied.
The line "Order allow,deny" must not contain any spaces except for the one after "Order".
(The best variant) You can use a different directory for storing images (for example, 'xcart/images'), uploading images to this directory with your FTP/SSH client.