Re: Database versus filesystem for storing images

[John McCawley <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My comment about stark raving madmen was somewhat tongue-in-cheek.  
There is certainly a case to be made for images in a database under some 
circumstances.  However, for the average Joe web developer, and 
certainly someone new to the whole problem, I think storing them on the 
filesystem is going to be by far the most painless and efficient approach.

James Neff wrote:

> "... and Moses said unto them, 'The eleventh commandment :  thou shalt 
> store images in a database!'..."
>
> 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