What are some common pitfalls to avoid when creating a PHP image gallery script?

One common pitfall to avoid when creating a PHP image gallery script is not properly sanitizing user input, which can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. To prevent this, always validate and sanitize user input before using it in your script. 

// Sanitize user input to prevent SQL injection
$user_input = $_POST['input'];
$sanitized_input = filter_var($user_input, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
```

Another common pitfall is not optimizing image loading and rendering, which can slow down the performance of your gallery. To improve performance, consider using lazy loading techniques and caching images to reduce load times.

```php
// Lazy loading images in gallery
echo '<img src="placeholder.jpg" data-src="image.jpg" class="lazyload">';
```

Lastly, avoid hardcoding image paths in your script as it can make maintenance difficult. Instead, consider storing image paths in a database or configuration file for easier management.

```php
// Storing image paths in a configuration file
$config = include('config.php');
$image_path = $config['image_path'];

Keywords

file uploads image manipulation security vulnerabilities SQL injection cross-site scripting

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