What if you had another database where you stored just the images and not back it up if you don't want to?
As an application developer, I like the idea of storing files and images in the database because it makes it much easier to control access and security from an application standpoint.
I think Microsoft SQL Server stores blobs in a separate file, and only retains pointers in the actually database field for that blob. So when you SELECT on that blob MS SQL reads the external file for you as if it lived in the database. I don't know if Postgres does the same thing, but if it did, you wouldn't have to worry about "bloating" database files.
Sounds like this is for an Apache web application. Think about how web sites like Flickr and Webshots store their images in a database. You could write a cool Apache mod so that the url: "http://mycompany.com/images/01234.jpg"; would go through this module, pull the appropriate image from the database and send it back; all the while the client is none-the-wiser. Just a thought.
I think its one of those things where there's not right or wrong answer. Instead you just have to do the minimum of what your application requires. If you don't need application-level control over the files, then by all means store them on the file system. But if you need to control security than you have to prevent physical access to the file (which means no file system storage) and pull the image from the database through the application.
My two cents, James John McCawley wrote:
Don't store your images in the database. Store them on the filesystem and store their path in the database. Anyone that tells you otherwise is a stark raving madman :)My system is very heavily used, and our pg_dump is only a few gigs. Meanwhile our images/documents storage is well over a hundred gigs. I'd hate to think that I'd have to dump and restore 100 gigs every time I wanted to dump the newest data to the development database.As far as how they actually get to the client machine, typically these days people use web servers for this sort of thing.Clodoaldo wrote:5 Jan 2007 06:59:18 -0800, imageguy <imageguy1206@xxxxxxxxx>:I think I know the answer,If you know the answer please tell it as I have read some discussions on the web and although I have decided on a solution I'm still not sure about the best answer, if there is a best answer after all.but if you don't have an "application server" - ie a webserver, etc,Yes I have an application server, the Apache server.and many of the workstations/clients that need access to the images but may not have access to a network share,network share? I don't understand. The images will be loaded by html pages with the img tag like in <img src="http://domain.com/images/xxx.jpg";>isn't the database the only choice ?No. It is one of the choices. The other is to store the images in the file system, in a directory readable by Apache.- or is there a postgresql function/utility that will "server" the file from the file system based on the reference/link embeded in the database ??I think some procedure languages can read files. In this case what would be the gain in introducing a middle man, the db server? Regards,---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 4: Have you searched our list archives? http://archives.postgresql.org/
![http://mycompany.com/images/01234.jpg"](http://mycompany.com/images/01234.jpg"){kind=link}
![http://domain.com/images/xxx.jpg"](http://domain.com/images/xxx.jpg"){kind=link}