Re: Storing Files IN a database

Sean (dolans_at_my-deja.com) wrote:
: Oracle 8.1.6 on Wint 4.0 - Java Options not installed at the moment.
 

: QUESTION: Opinions requested on storing files in the database versus
: as files on the operating system.

BLOBs are a pain to work with if you need to access them via SQL. However, if you can use OLE and forms, then define the right OLE parameters and the files are used automagically by the correct application, its really easy.

I worked with that on a very simple system that saved word documents as BLOBS. There was no programming work involved. The form allowed the user to select a document using various criteria, then accessing the document consisted of clicking on the open button. The programming was trivial - simply define a BLOB column and an OLE button - there was literally no more work involved than that!

It was hard later, to automatically extract the documents to disk files for another project. We ended up having to write word macros that were invoked via an OLE library from within PL/SQL in the form, the macros had to be driven by sending keystroke macros (!) cause nothing else would work, and it also meant that you couldn't run the extract as a remote batch job, but instead had to tie up a workstation (though it was fun to watch the windows flashing while the extracts ran).

Like I said, allowing a user to work with a document stored as a BLOB was trivial, working with the blob by direct PL/SQL was a pain. Received on Wed Nov 01 2000 - 23:00:43 CST