Get Server Path of an Image by Product ID - Magento 1.8

Question

I have a CI project and a Magento Project on same server.

I want to periodically import Magento products into my CI website.

Everything is working perfectly, I am currently able to import each thing from Magento to my CI website.

BUT, how do I get physical/server paths of images of magento product? I want to copy those image files to my CI project.

Here is relative line I am loading product with

$product = $simpleProduct->getData()

And this is Image related part of what I get in return. look at file key, its not actual server path.

 "media_gallery":{  
     "images":[  
        {  
           "value_id":"6",
           "file":"\/2\/-\/2-2.jpg",
           "label":"",
           "position":"1",
           "disabled":"0",
           "label_default":null,
           "position_default":"1",
           "disabled_default":"0"
        },
        {  
           "value_id":"5",
           "file":"\/2\/_\/2.jpg",
           "label":"",
           "position":"2",
           "disabled":"0",
           "label_default":null,
           "position_default":"2",
           "disabled_default":"0"
        }
     ],
     "values":[  

     ]
  },

PS I dont want browser path of an image like this http://www.website/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/2/-/image_name_here.jpg

I want server path.

Answer 1

AFAIK, there is no clean way of doing it out of the box.

The hacky script I tend to use is the following (note that $file corresponds to the data stored with the file key in your media gallery images array):

$imageUrl = Mage::helper('catalog/image')->init($_product, 'image', $file)->__toString();
$imagePath = str_replace(array(Mage::getBaseUrl('media'), '/'), array(Mage::getBaseDir('media').DS, DS), $imageUrl);

Pretty sure I found it on StackExchange a while ago but can't get my hands on the link.