Re: GIF images, Oracle WS and images

In article 5AB8_at_monsanto.com, Michael E Corum <mecoru_at_monsanto.com> () writes:

> Brad Baker wrote:

Actually, images are data, sometimes. But I agree- images don't belong in the database for web-applications (this is one reason Informix' Universal Server doesn't excite me too much).

So go with the file-name approach.

I've seen this done at lots of sites- instead of storing static, large bits of data (images) in your database, slowing everything down for everybody, you only store the name of the file.

You should be able to monkey around with the HTML/PLSQL/SQL in OWS to get it to output HTML that looks for the image in some file.

I'd think twice before putting images in the database on the web (or static anything, for that matter). In client-server applications, if your clients need access to the images you might put them in the database for easy access (this saves you from having to have all the files in some local directory, or having the users share files on some main fileserver).

In the web, however, you can stick the files someplace where your webserver can grab them, and then you don't have to worry about large amounts of data going through your database. Imagine- you have an image in your homepage and 200 new users hit it every daythat  means that image (lots of data) is re-queried 200 times every day, instead of 0 times if it is stored in some file. That's just for one image- now imagine your website has lots of them, and more than 200 users. Its a big waste.

I guess it is nice to have everything in one place- easier to administer, one vendor to call up if things go wrong, etc. But this isn't optimal in terms of performance.

good luck,
Mark McNulty
JYACC Consultant
mmcnul_at_jyacc.com

Note - these views are mine and not those of JP Morgan or JYACC. Received on Tue Apr 15 1997 - 00:00:00 CEST