Storing Files in a MySQL DB

xigudun

I've been coding in PHP and MySQL for a while now but have stumbled upon a problem which I just cannot solve.

I'm trying to build a PHP front end which would allow me to store MP3's in a MySQL DB.

I'm using the LongBlob field in the Db and trying to upload using the file method in PHP and it just will not work.

Anyone got any ideas?

BeastRider

What exactly doesn't work? The file upload? Storing into the DB? Or trying to play the stored mp3 files?

maganv0x

What are you trying to upload in the database? Names of the songs listed in a text file, the whole mp3, etc? We need more input to better understand your issue and environment you are working with.

tha_mink

Believe me, you do not want to store the mp3's in the db as binary data. Instead, keep them in a folder somewhere and just record the filename and location in the db. Reason being, when you want to extract the binary mp3, you will run into problems.

You can do it but it's important to remember when storing binary data, you need to write an extraction layer to understand what that binary data is comprised of and how correctly convert it back into a readable file. It's not like saving a file to a disc.

I don't even like storing images as binary data. If you can avoid it, and you can, you shouldn't be storing mp3s as binary data in your db. Just not wise.

xigudun

I'm trying to build a site which will allow users to upload mp3's, avi's and images to their personal space.

Originallu I wanted to create folder and just store the links to them in the db, but this would mean creating folders every time a new user was added, then somehow restricted the folder to just them, and making it read/writable so they could store files there.

So I moved onto trying to store the <b>entire file</b> in the db as a binary and then somehow extracting it for them to view/play whenever they wanted to.

Are either of these methods possible, or am I simply wasting my time?

tsinka

Hi,

storing mp3 files in a database isn't a good thing. Images are ok since they are not that big but storing a lot of mp3 files that have a length of >= 3MB each would blow up your database very fast.

What about this. Just create one directory where you store the files of the users (they can upload them through a form). Then store in the database only which files belong to whom. You can then read out that data and create a list on them that only shows the songs that belong to that users and contain links to play or donwload them. The folder you use to store the mp3 files should be outside of your document root since you can write a script that provides the download functionality with some php header() calls. If you want to make sure that no files get overwritten if two users choose to use the same name you can prefix the saved files with e.g. the user id of the users.
This will work with every type of file.

Just a suggestion 🙂

Thomas

goa103

Hello,

Originally posted by xigudun
I'm trying to build a site which will allow users to upload mp3's, avi's and images to their personal space.

Originallu I wanted to create folder and just store the links to them in the db, but this would mean creating folders every time a new user was added, then somehow restricted the folder to just them, and making it read/writable so they could store files there.

So I moved onto trying to store the <b>entire file</b> in the db as a binary and then somehow extracting it for them to view/play whenever they wanted to.

Are either of these methods possible, or am I simply wasting my time?

this would mean creating folders every time a new user was added

What's wrong with creating a folders ? It's better to use files and folders that a DBMS not meant at all to handle objects. MySQL is a very simple but powerful RDBMS (tables), not an OODBMS (objets : sounds, musics, images...).

then somehow restricted the folder to just them, and making it read/writable so they could store files there

And you can easily do it with .htaccess files ! Each time you create a folder, create .htaccess files with a login and password. Your "get_file.php" script check the current user session and get the files if the login/password match the .htaccess one. This way only the owner of the files can get the files. And voilà 🙂

Are either of these methods possible, or am I simply wasting my time?

Trust me you don't want to store your MP3 files in your DB. It would be a real... waste of time 🙂

JM. Molina

BeastRider

I think you make a lot of work for yourself trying to store various binaries into a DB. First, you have to have a routine to load the binary into the DB. Then, you have to have a routine to recreate a file from the binary. You might need two routines, one to create a file, one to output to the web. This all sounds a lot more complicated than keeping pointers to various directories, and simply modifiying user rights to those directories.

PS: I'm not an anti-DB blob guy... I use thumbnails in a DB with good success. But, from a cost/effectivness approach, I can't see anything that makes storing in a DB a useful thing.

xigudun

First of all, thanks to everyone for the help so far.

I think it goes without saying that I will not be storing the data in the db, rather, in folders.

I haven't ever used .htaccess files before though and have no idea where to even start. Nor do I know how to create folders dynamically on the server using php.

Any ideas would be great!

goa103

Hi,

Originally posted by xigudun
First of all, thanks to everyone for the help so far.

I think it goes without saying that I will not be storing the data in the db, rather, in folders.

I haven't ever used .htaccess files before though and have no idea where to even start. Nor do I know how to create folders dynamically on the server using php.

Any ideas would be great!

For the ".htaccess" search for tutorials about "php user authentication apache" on Google. I am sure there's even a PHPBuilder article ! The idea is to use Apache to handle user authentication : login, password, folder right access...

For the "create folders", simply search for "php create folder" on the forum. Help us by helping yourself, when you have a question in your mind, don't ask, search for an answer first. Thousands of beginners already asked for it (read my signature ^{^).}

Thanks to a good tutorial (first one I found : http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/PHP/UserAuth) you should get a working system in no time. But don't copy & paste code or anything, understand it, security is not a game 🙂.

Hope it helps,
JM. Molina