Thanks, Larry. I will attempt a trial transition you suggested some time this week. I assume from your description that whenever I change the file (if it is stored outside of the database) the change will be automatic in RBASE as long as the file path does not change. Is that correct? If so, that eliminates one more step. When files are outside the database like that, how is the speed affected in reports, especially if I am printing a lot of drawings?
jim ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lawrence Lustig Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 10:55 AM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Instruction files in table << I now presently have a table that contains my assembly drawings (BMP files). In regards to your suggestion about the DOC files, should I also store the path to those BMP files rather than having them stored in my table? Or are BMP files handled differently? >> Anytime you suck files into the database as VARBIT columns, the RB4 or RX4 file is going to grow by at least the size of the disk file you're storing. If those files are at all large, your #4 file will begin to grow quickly. For a small and predicatable number of smallish images, I'll store them in the database. For a growing list of files, I just keep references to the disk file. In fact, I store the "root" of my document storage system in a system configuration, and only the relative path and filename to the file. So, one client has a table of three or four logos that have to appear on various documents. Each one is about 80K. I store those in the database. They also produce a large number of PDF files (perhaps 50 a day), each between 50K and 2M. Those, I store on disk in a bunch of folders under a location called \\TheirSvr\RBSystem\Documents\. That location is stored in my SYSTEMVALUES table so, if it changes, I can change the table and not the code. Then, my file links are in the form Reports\Shpping\Ship_20090428.PDF, Invoices\Inv_22101.PDF, and so on. -- Larry
