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Serve images from files, or db?: msg#00729

Subject: Serve images from files, or db?
Assuming an "image" isn't necessarily graphical (i.e. it could be a
downloadable file of any type), what are the considerations with regard
to serving binary data out of BLOBs versus recording filenames or URLs
in a table and serving them up by reference?

I've got two slightly different projects that will need to do this.  The
first is a software download site whose users buy access that lets them
download a single file.  There will probably be only 40 or 50 files in
the collection, updated every few weeks.  Users will log in multiple
times to get updates to the files to which they've got "subscriptions".

The second project has to provide more complex fraud screening -- i.e.
stop a file from being downloaded by the same user account from too many
different IP addresses in a given time -- but every user has equal
access to all the files in the collection.

What should I be considering when coming up with a strategy for these
two projects?  What are the strengths and weaknesses of storing files
in a BLOB versus storing pointers to those files?

Thanks.  :)

-- 
  Paul Chvostek                                             <paul@xxxxx>
  Operations / Abuse / Whatever                                                 
 
  it.canada, hosting and development                   http://www.it.ca/


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