Re: Serve images from files, or db?

On Tuesday 31 December 2002 16:39, Paul Chvostek wrote: > Assuming an "image" isn't necessarily graphical (i.e. it could be a > downloadable file of any type), what are the considerations with regard > to serving binary data out of BLOBs versus recording filenames or URLs > in a table and serving them up by reference? > > I've got two slightly different projects that will need to do this. The > first is a software download site whose users buy access that lets them > download a single file. There will probably be only 40 or 50 files in > the collection, updated every few weeks. Users will log in multiple > times to get updates to the files to which they've got "subscriptions". > > The second project has to provide more complex fraud screening -- i.e. > stop a file from being downloaded by the same user account from too many > different IP addresses in a given time -- but every user has equal > access to all the files in the collection. > > What should I be considering when coming up with a strategy for these > two projects? What are the strengths and weaknesses of storing files > in a BLOB versus storing pointers to those files? The pros and cons have been covered many times before. Check out the archives. -- Jason Wong -> Gremlins Associates -> www.gremlins.biz Open Source Software Systems Integrators * Web Design & Hosting * Internet & Intranet Applications Development * /* Life is a concentration camp. You're stuck here and there's no way out and you can only rage impotently against your persecutors. -- Woody Allen */