Re: Best way to store Excel spreadsheets in Oracle?

I considered a similar problem once for images. Unless you have a very large number of spreadsheets, I would suggest storing only the url in the database and leaving the spreadsheet in the file system. This would allow you to conveniently use your normal methods to update the file.

As I understand the argument for putting such files in the database, this would allow you to maintain transactional control over changes in the file and perhaps even do some searching through these files. For example, if you wanted to delete the file, both the reference to the url and the file itself could be removed in a single transaction. Also backing up the database would backup the file. However, I don't think these benefits outweigh the ease of updating the spreadsheet if it remained as a file in the file system.

Frank Hubeny

Van Messner wrote:

> What do you all suggest as the most effective way to do this? Store a
> pointer to the document? Store the document? As what - a blob? And how is
> the document reconstituted with all of its formatting intact after you get
> in out of the database? They want to have users hit the database over the
> web and be able to see the spreadsheets they have permissions on.
>
> Van
Received on Wed Dec 13 2000 - 02:38:28 CST