Storing images and other binary files in MySQL

[BenRussell]

I am running an online service that allows users to upload images to my website. Instead of storing the pictures on my website as .jpg or something of that sort, how can I instead store them in a table in my MySQL database? ANd then, how do I retrieve them and display them in the browser?

I am using Perl for the interface. If anyone has any suggestions on how to do this, or any tutorials to point out, that would be great. Thank you.

P.S. I am also interested in storing other types of files also, such as .zip, .exe, .mp3, etc.

- Ben

 

[hos2]

there are some topics already in this subject. search on blob for example. what I know is that it's easier and faster to just work with files instead of storing them in a blob field.

 

[sleipnir214]

I've found it a lot easier to just store the filenames in MySQL and the files on the filesystem, particularly for a website.

If you store the blobs in the database, you need two scripts: one that will fetch data from the database and produce the webpage containing, for example, an appropriately formatted image tag:

<img src=&quot;my_retrieval_script.cgi?name=foo.jpg&quot;>

and a second script that will take in a filename from the URL, fetch the data from MySQL, output the appropriate Content-type header, then stream the data.

Storing just the filenames means you only have to produce and maintain the first script.

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