Upload files to MySql

[Anon]

Why not put files in a db?
I always here "just put the path in the db".
Will it slow down MySql much?
Is it not possible to search within trhe files if you put them in the db?

And...

How do I upload and retrieve files to/from the db?

[Anon]

Store them in a blob column.

If you're just talking text files, then read the text file into a variable, and insert the variable into the mysql column. That's simple.

The part that I don't get is that people are always wanting to store images in the database. Why? You can't search through image data like you could a text file. Then, when you want to display the image, you have to mess around with the headers and all that stuff. Plus you just add the extra overhead of getting all of the data out of mysql. For images, I think it's just better to store the path.

You're right about the searching of files in the database. If they are text, it could come in handy in some situations.

---JOhn Holmes...

[Anon]

What if it is a variety of files an i need to be sure they are named rigth, and maybe i want to display icons.

I migth need the MIME or...
I could get the suffix and put that in a column.

[Anon]

You can rename files with PHP, or assign them unique names. You could also find out the extension of an image name and use that to generate the icon. All without actually saving the image data into the database.

---JH

[Anon]

What about PDF files? Could they be searched from a MysQL database?

Does anyone have an references to tutorials or sample code for either uploading files into MySQL via PHP or for uploading files to a folder and putting the URL int MySQL?

Thanks!
Tim