Question

I am struggling to decide if I should be using the MySQL blob field type in an upcoming project I have.

My basic requirements are, there will be certain database records that can be viewed and have multiple files uploaded and “attached” to those records. Seeing said records can be limited to certain people on a case by case basis. Any type of file can be uploaded with virtually no restriction.

So looking at it one way, if I go the MySQL route, I don’t have to worry about virus’s creeping up or random php files getting uploaded and somehow executed. I also have a much easier path for permissioning and keeping data tied close to a record.

The other obvious route is storing the data in a specific folder structure outside of the webroot. in this case I’d have to come up with a special naming convention for folders/files to keep track of what they reference inside the database.

Is there a performance hit with using MySQL blob field type? I’m concerned about choosing a solution that will hinder future growth of the website as well as choosing a solution that wont be easy to maintain.

Answer 1

If your web server will be serving these uploaded files over the web, the performance will almost certainly be better if they are stored on the filesystem. The web server will then be able to apply HTTP caching hints such as Last-Modified and ETag which will help performance for users accessing the same file multiple times. Additionally, the web server will automatically set the correct Content-Type for the file when serving. If you store blobs in the database, you’ll end up implementing the above mentioned features and more when you should be getting them for free from your web server.

Additionally, pulling large blob data out of your database may end up being a performance bottleneck on your database. Also, your database backups will probabaly be slower because they’ll be backing up more data. If you’re doing ad-hoc queries during development, it’ll be inconvenient seeing large blobs in result sets for select statements. If you want to simply inspect an uploaded file, it will be inconvenient and roundabout to do so because it’ll be awkwardly stored in a database column.

I would stick with the common practice of storing the files on the filesystem and the path to the file in the database.