Adding link to external photos in SQL 2000 db

Question

Adding link to external photos in SQL 2000 db

Kenena Klosson

SSC Eights!

Points: 958
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April 7, 2008 at 4:01 pm

#188973

Does anyone have a link to instructions for creating a database field designed so that the application can link to and pull up an image .jpg or .pdf file from a server folder? Any info and/or direction would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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Jack Corbett SSC Guru Points: 184393 More actions · Answer 1

You can just used a varchar or nvarchar field to store the path. Then your GUI will use that as its path into the file system.

Jack Corbett
Consultant - Straight Path Solutions
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Todd Engen SSCrazy Eights Points: 9869 More actions · Answer 2

Here's a relatively straightforward way of doing that.

1. In IIS configure a virtual directory that points to the location of the .JPG files.

2. In SQL, store the relative path in a VARCHAR field in the table.

3. In the application, use the relative path from the table and construct a URL.

Kenena Klosson SSC Eights! Points: 958 More actions · Answer 3

Hi Todd,

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate your time. This is uncharted territory for me, is there any chance you could provide more details or direct me to good reading material?

Thanks again,

Kenena

Todd Engen SSCrazy Eights Points: 9869 More actions · Answer 4

The attached zip file contains a document with some more detail on each of those steps.

Just keep in mind there are other ways of storing and displaying images, this is just one of them.

Kenena Klosson SSC Eights! Points: 958 More actions · Answer 5

Thanks very much, Todd, that gave me the insights I needed.

Kenena

sqlvogel SSCrazy Eights Points: 9526 More actions · Answer 6

You might be interested in the new Filestream feature of SQL Server 2008.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb933993(SQL.100).aspx

Kenena Klosson SSC Eights! Points: 958 More actions · Answer 7

Thanks, David, for responding. I took a peek at that info and will review it further. What I was unable to figure out is how the application field is triggered to go out and get the photo from the network. If you know how that is done, I'd appreciate it.

Kenena

sqlvogel SSCrazy Eights Points: 9526 More actions · Answer 8

The application just sees the FILESTREAM value as a regular Windows file handle. The handle is created using the Filestream API and a virtual file path. The app never sees the actual file path on the server and doesn't need access to that file.