[RESOLVED] Blob as Video :(

JamesU2002

All,

I have stored a WMV Video file in a Blob format in a MySQL database.

What I want to do now is to be able to insert a link into a Object class so I can stream the video. You know the embeded Windows Media Players.

Would this be possible?

benracer

hi,
yes this is possible, i have no experience with storing videos in a db but i would store the link that relates to the video that has been uploaded and the video id to able to finds it later when you use a query to return the one you require. Then all thats needed is to rename a .html file to .php and return the link using a simple select query. To get the link in the url just replace it by printing an variable....


## connect to database, select the video you require (the row its on), save the results into array then...  
<OBJECT id="VIDEO" width="320" height="240" 
	style="position:absolute; left:0;top:0;"
	CLASSID="CLSID:6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6"
	type="application/x-oleobject">
	<PARAM NAME="URL" VALUE="><?php echo $video['link']; ?>">
	<PARAM NAME="SendPlayStateChangeEvents" VALUE="True">
	<PARAM NAME="AutoStart" VALUE="True">
	<PARAM name="uiMode" value="none">
	<PARAM name="PlayCount" value="9999">
</OBJECT

if you need help with this just ask =)

bpat1434

Yes; although your database would get large and slow quickly depending upon the number and length of videos you have in there. Typically it's best to store the videos elsewhere, and then generate links to them and store the path (or link) to the video in the database instead of the video itself.

JamesU2002

Here is what I have so far

	
$query = "SELECT * FROM video";
$result  = mysql_query($query) or die('Error, query failed');
$row = mysql_fetch_array( $result );

header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$row[videoname]");
header("Content-length: $row[size]");
header("Content-type: $row[type]");

The row - videoname is the actual file name so i.e. thisismyvideo.wmv
The size row is how big the file size is. The Type stores the type of file the video is so video/x-ms-wmv. Then finaly there is another row (not mentioned above) called 'content' that is the actual BLOB.

Just confused where I should go next. You mention saving the results into an array. Should I include the row 'content' in the above somewhere?

Thanks for the help so far. I feel like I am getting somewhere with all your wonderful experts! 🙂

benracer

i would store them somewhere else like bpat said, upload them by ftp or using your hosting companies file upload. Add the link to the db by hand or you could create your own php upload form that puts the video in the correct file and link in the db. The code to show the video in the windows media player would be..

<?php
// connect to db
$query = "SELECT * FROM video WHERE video_id=10 LIMIT 1"; // only return one video 
$result  = mysql_query($query) or die('Error, query failed'); 
$row = mysql_fetch_array( $result ); 
?>
<OBJECT id="VIDEO" width="320" height="240" 
    style="position:absolute; left:0;top:0;" 
    CLASSID="CLSID:6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6" 
    type="application/x-oleobject"> 
    <PARAM NAME="URL" VALUE="><?php echo $row['url']; ?>"> 
    <PARAM NAME="SendPlayStateChangeEvents" VALUE="True"> 
    <PARAM NAME="AutoStart" VALUE="True"> 
    <PARAM name="uiMode" value="none"> 
    <PARAM name="PlayCount" value="9999"> 
</OBJECT>

JamesU2002

I have to store the file in the database, I realise there are better ways but this is my only method.

Any ideas how?

benracer

just out of interest why?

benracer

edit: For some reason the site duplicated my last post!

JamesU2002

Without going into further detail its the limitations of the setup in place.

I felt we where so close to cracking the problem. :queasy:

Weedpacket

JamesU2002 wrote:
Just confused where I should go next.

echo $row['content'];

should provide some results.

JamesU2002

Seems we are getting a little closer.

I entered the following into the Embedded OBJECT Tag URL

<OBJECT id="VIDEO" width="320" height="240" 
    style="position:absolute; left:0;top:0;" 
    CLASSID="CLSID:6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6" 
    type="application/x-oleobject"> 
    <PARAM NAME="URL" VALUE="><?php echo $row['content']; ?>"> 
    <PARAM NAME="SendPlayStateChangeEvents" VALUE="True"> 
    <PARAM NAME="AutoStart" VALUE="True"> 
    <PARAM name="uiMode" value="none"> 
    <PARAM name="PlayCount" value="9999"> 
</OBJECT>

But I just get a load of Intergers, Letters and Characters.

Any idea?

rsmith

Well you're tried to call an array key by name which is what an associative array is for so change this:

$row = mysql_fetch_array( $result );

$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);

Doing so will turn the array into an associative array where you can call the keys by their name (which will be set by their column name in your db. So if you have a column called url which stores the path to the video, you can do this:

<? echo $row['url']; ?>

Weedpacket

    <PARAM NAME="URL" VALUE="><?php echo $row['content']; ?>">

Because you tried to insert the BLOB data into the URL field of an HTML <object> element. Remember, I said that the BLOB data had to be output by a different script (the one that the URL that is supposed to go there links to).

JamesU2002

Weedpacket wrote:
Because you tried to insert the BLOB data into the URL field of an HTML <object> element. Remember, I said that the BLOB data had to be output by a different script (the one that the URL that is supposed to go there links to).

I am slighlty confused becuase I have stored the actual Video itself in the database rather than storing it in Folders and linking to it.

I have changed it to

$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);

but still get the same results.

Here is exactly what I have so far:

Above the Header:

<?php
require("require.php");

include 'database.php';
	$query = "SELECT * FROM video WHERE videoid = '18'";
	$result  = mysql_query($query) or die('Error, query failed');
	$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result); 


?>

Then in the HTML:

<OBJECT id="VIDEO" width="320" height="240" 
    style="position:absolute; left:0;top:0;" 
    CLASSID="CLSID:6BF52A52-394A-11d3-B153-00C04F79FAA6" 
    type="application/x-oleobject"> 
    <PARAM NAME="URL" VALUE="><?php echo $row['content']; ?>"> 
    <PARAM NAME="SendPlayStateChangeEvents" VALUE="True"> 
    <PARAM NAME="AutoStart" VALUE="True"> 
    <PARAM name="uiMode" value="none"> 
    <PARAM name="PlayCount" value="9999"> 
</OBJECT>

Perhaps this is not possible?

Though I feel we are close.

and

Weedpacket

But the browser still needs a URL to the video content, right? The video content is not the same thing as the HTML page that contains the player. They're two different resources, ergo, two different URLs.

The browser requests an HTML page (using its URL).
The server runs a PHP script and sends back the HTML requested.
Inside that HTML is an <object> element; one of its <param> elements contains a URL.
The browser sends a request for that URL to the server.
The server reads the URL as an instruction to run another PHP script.
That script retrieves and outputs video data.
Which the server sends back to the browser.

benracer

Print the array using print_r($row) and post the returned data.

JamesU2002

So are you saying it's not possible?

I just can't see how to get it to work.

JamesU2002

benracer wrote:
Print the array using print_r($row) and post the returned data.

Thanks for the reply.

But where would this fit into my code on the last page?

Weedpacket

Dunno who this "you" is you refer to; I'm saying it is possible, and I gave a step-by-step list of what needs to happen. You just need to think through the process of how a web page works; where you're getting hung up is that you're thinking you output an HTML page AND a video file in the same response. That's not going to work. You don't stick the binary data for an image inside the HTML file, do you? You put a URL in there instead, right ("data:" URLs notwithstanding)? I'm telling you to put a URL in your HTML (where the <param> tags says "URL") for a script that takes video data from the database and outputs it.

It works in exactly the same way as any other dynamically generated binary data.

Here's a thread I found by searching the forums for the word "blob".

JamesU2002

Thank you all so much, especially Weedpacket.

With a bit of tweaking and modifying the code in the link in the last post by Weedpacket, I've got it working!

If anyone wants to know how then basically all that was changed was from the link above was:

Header( "Content-type: image/gif");

Header( "Content-type: video/x-ms-wmv");

I apologise it for any reason I sounded rude at all.

Again thanks all.