Re: Image File System Question

thanks for your response,

We are kind of jailing (may be hiding would be a better term) resources
behind the database/Stored procedures and GUI needs to have a feel as if the
data is comming from database.
Its a requirement for the project that any communication of resources and
data be done through stored procedures/function calls.
What other options do you suggest.

Did try finding something about HFS for ext3/xfs but in vain. The
information i found was the conversion between these file systems.

There are not just the Users but different devices and applications as
clients that would talk to the database and may not require the web servers.

I would appreciate if someone can share if they have done sommething similar
or if someone can point me to the right resource.

pgfoundry does talk about something with Npgsql but thats a different layer.
Some devices and applications may not go through that layer.

Thanks,
vish

On 11/4/05, Richard Huxton <dev(at)archonet(dot)com> wrote:
>
> vishal saberwal wrote:
> > hi,
> >
> > My server is Postgres 8.0.1 on fedora core2.
> > My clients are remote and interface with my server using .NET GUI.
> >
> > We are trying to store many images/icons/audio/video clips in our
> system.
> > We expect many of these. The way we are doing it is using Hierarchical
> > File System.
>
> HFS is an old Apple Macintosh filesystem - an unlikely choice. You'll
> probably find it's ext3.
>
> > I understand we need to limit the size of these directories by
> > controlling number of resources in each directory.
>
> Less important nowadays than it used to be, but usually done via hashing
> the filename. So, file 123456.gif is stored in 1/2/3/123456.gif
>
> > The way i want to let anone access these resources is only through
> > stored procedures rather than direct downloading.
>
> Why?
> What are the benefits of this system?
>
> > I am trying to create stored procedure/function API for the same. These
> > functions will check for the permissions for the user and/or the file,
> > check the location from the schema and then would "stream" it out for
> > the GUI to use.
>
> Why not just set up a webserver and get it to authenticate to your
> database?
>
> > The question is:
> > (1) How do i use the database stored procedures/functions as a tunnel
> > for just streaming the data rather than storing it in database?
> > That is, a function that given a Image ID for example, will read the
> > location from the table and then just go to the location and stream out
> > the bits.
> > (2) Am i right in saying that it can't solely be done iwth plpgsql but
> > would need somem c/c++ api.
>
> Any of the "untrusted" languages (which of course includes "C"). File
> access will be different in each of course - pick whichever you are most
> familiar with. The key differences between a "trusted" and "untrusted"
> version of a language are:
> 1. Untrusted languages can access the rest of the system
> 2. Functions in untrusted languages can only be added by a superuser.
>
> > (3) Has anyone here done something like this and can share with me how
> > he/she implemented this.
> >
> > I did do my homework of googling for something like this but may be my
> > search skills were not strong enough to find some substantial
> > information/HOW TOs or examples.
>
> Well, there is the "procedural languages" section of the manuals. It
> might also be worth checking on pgfoundry to see if there is anything
> useful there.
>
> --
> Richard Huxton
> Archonet Ltd
>