Re: Seeking advice on database table design for storing images

Dennis Gearon wrote:
>
> It's faster to store the images in the file system, and the path/filename in the database.
>
> For one thing, the file system itself is just faster.
> You would have to provide the client's browser with a URL for the image, and feed that through
> some sort of switchyard script application, when with a filesystem based image, you just specifiy
> where it is and let apache worry about it.
>
> The only real advantage to putting images in the database, or hiding them behind another name in
> the document tree and using a switchyard application to redirect the image request is to protect
> your image directory and images from any use but in your site's documents (until they are
> downloaded once)

It's not the only advantage. What about making a consistent online
backup that includes a snapshot of the image collection? What about
session authenticated access to image data so that a user can only see
the images associated with an invoice where he has permissions for the
branch or department?

I store binary data b64-encoded in text fields.


Jan


>
> 2/7/2003 8:18:56 AM, chris.gamble@CPBINC.com wrote:
>
> >I am working on an application that will store images with every product
> >ordered from a given company. Doing this type of application on other
> >databases, I have always been told to use a seperate table for the image
> >store. Doing this has given me the table designs listed below. My question
> >is: Is it within the design of postgres 7.3 to store 30k to 1mb images in a
> >bytea field, and if so can the two tables below be joined into a single
> >table without suffering adverse effects?
> >
> >TABLE - tdatInvoiceLineItems
> >invoiceid   int8
> >productid  int4
> >quantityordered  int4
> >samplestocustomer  int4
> >adcost  numeric  10,4
> >adheight  float4  4
> >adwidth  float4  4
> >workorderid  int8
> >objectid  int8  8
> >needsart  bool
> >
> >TABLE - tdatCustomerArt
> >lineitemid   int8
> >artwork  bytea
> >extension  varchar
> >
> >
> >Chris Gamble
> >CPB Inc
> >p: 972-579-1642 x 22
> >f: 972-579-1355
> >
> >
> >
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