serialize documents to database?

[buddyel]

We are working on a solution to read certain error log files and pull out the referenced documents and store them in the database for presentation in a web interface.

We are trying to figure out the best way to store these documents as a BLOB in the database. The way it works is each error log file could reference up to 3 documents at this time, possible more in the future, so the method of storing these needs to be somewhat unlimited. It was mentioned to us to try serializing the documents in the DB table, but I am not sure how to really even start that.

Our problem is that the web interface will only need access to one of the documents in the BLOB field. How can we go about deserializing just that document needed, when we are just saving the filename and filedata of the document.

 

[Ruffnekk]

I wrote an article explaining a bit about serialization here:

http://www.donationcoder.com/Forums/bb/index.php?topic=7274.0

I might be of use to you.

Regards, Ruffnekk
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Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?

 

[buddyel]

Thanks for that info, it should help in getting started. I think where my hangup lies is having multiple documents in a single serialized stream. I would like to have method with a documentName parameter and have that Method only deserialize that document back to disk. Is there any way that you know of to accomplish this?

 

[Ruffnekk]

Either serialize only one document per stream or deserialize all documents and then write a method that selects a particular document. As far as I know you can't serialize a collection and then deserialize one item of that collection only.

Regards, Ruffnekk
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Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?