What best practices should be followed when sorting and displaying images in a PHP gallery?

When sorting and displaying images in a PHP gallery, it is important to follow best practices to ensure a smooth and efficient user experience. One common approach is to store image file paths in a database along with relevant metadata such as title, description, and upload date. When displaying images, use pagination to limit the number of images shown per page and optimize image loading by resizing them to appropriate dimensions. Additionally, consider implementing sorting options based on metadata fields like title or upload date to allow users to easily navigate the gallery.

// Example code for sorting and displaying images in a PHP gallery

// Connect to database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "gallery";

$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Query database for image data
$sql = "SELECT * FROM images ORDER BY upload_date DESC";
$result = $conn->query($sql);

// Display images with pagination
$imagesPerPage = 10;
$page = isset($_GET['page']) ? $_GET['page'] : 1;
$start = ($page - 1) * $imagesPerPage;

$sql = "SELECT * FROM images ORDER BY upload_date DESC LIMIT $start, $imagesPerPage";
$result = $conn->query($sql);

while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    echo '<img src="' . $row['file_path'] . '" alt="' . $row['title'] . '">';
}

// Pagination links
$totalImages = $result->num_rows;
$totalPages = ceil($totalImages / $imagesPerPage);

for ($i = 1; $i <= $totalPages; $i++) {
    echo '<a href="?page=' . $i . '">' . $i . '</a>';
}