Re: InterMedia Confusion

From: Joel R. Kallman <jkallman_at_us.oracle.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 13:34:42 GMT
Message-ID: <378f2b3c.1430256@newshost.us.oracle.com>

On Fri, 16 Jul 1999 11:19:25 GMT, coakleyj_at_hotmail.com wrote:

>Hi all.
>
>I'm looking for a good book on the Oracle options/cartridges.
>
>In particular, the group of options now bundled as Imedia.
>i.e Context, Image, locator etc. Ideally the book would
>explain how to integrate it with front-end tools such as developer
>and clearly explain the advangaes of using these options rather
>that just storing images straight into BLOB files yourself.

Unfortunately, I know of no such book other than the supplied Oracle manuals for interMedia. The "Oracle8i interMedia Audio, Image, and Video Java Client User's Guide and Reference" and "Oracle8i interMedia Audio, Image, and Video User's Guide and Reference" contain a plethora of information and examples about the API's associated with these products.

>
>i.e Given that I can store images, and sound in the database
>using long, blob or Bfile datatypes, and subsequently query
>these using Forms, why would I bother buying the extra server
>options?

One of the things that you get with interMedia is an object type that exposes the meta-data associated with these different types. For instance, once you store an image as an interMedia image, you can immediately determine the height, width, size, compression format, etc of the image. Secondly, you can perform server-side manipulation of the image (scale, crop, convert from one format to another, etc.). An excellent example where someone would want to use this is a Web-based application, where you would want to store the "master" image in the database, but provide a smaller, lower-quality rendition over the Web.

>
>In addition, Inter Media includes "Locator" data. I cannot figure out
>how this differs from the spatial option.

Oracle interMedia Locator is entirely a subset of Oracle8i Spatial. In the most simple terms, think of Locator as "points", and Spatial as "complex geometry", including points, lines, polygons.

interMedia Locator is used for:

Geocoding spatial-point data by providing the means to add a geocoded address column or objects to existing tables and storing it locally in the Oracle8i universal database server
Inserting and retrieving geocoded address data
Performing simple within-distance text- or map-based queries on the geocoded data
>
>

Hope this helps.

>Thanks for the help
>
>Coakleyj
>
>
>Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
>Share what you know. Learn what you don't.

Thanks!

Joel

Joel R. Kallman Oracle Service Industries

Columbus, OH                             http://govt.us.oracle.com

jkallman@us.oracle.com                   http://www.oracle.com

The statements and opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent those of Oracle Corporation. Received on Fri Jul 16 1999 - 08:34:42 CDT