What are the drawbacks of preloading a large number of images for users in a PHP-based image gallery?

Preloading a large number of images in a PHP-based image gallery can lead to slow loading times and increased server resource usage, which can negatively impact user experience. To solve this issue, you can implement lazy loading, where images are only loaded when they are about to come into view. This helps reduce the initial load time and improves performance. 

<?php
// Lazy loading implementation in PHP

// Loop through your images and output them with a placeholder
foreach ($images as $image) {
    echo '<img src="placeholder.jpg" data-src="' . $image['url'] . '" alt="' . $image['alt'] . '">';
}

// Add JavaScript to load images when they come into view
echo '<script>
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {
    var lazyImages = document.querySelectorAll("img[data-src]");
    
    function lazyLoad() {
        lazyImages.forEach(function(img) {
            if (img.getBoundingClientRect().top < window.innerHeight) {
                img.src = img.getAttribute("data-src");
                img.removeAttribute("data-src");
            }
        });
    }
    
    lazyLoad();
    
    document.addEventListener("scroll", lazyLoad);
    document.addEventListener("resize", lazyLoad);
});
</script>';
?>

Keywords

memory consumption performance impact resource exhaustion image caching lazy loading

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