Question

I was contemplating the creation of a tool to load varbinary(max) fields in a SQL Server 2008 database with files as selected from a open file dialog. Is there any such tool or equivalent that I could use? My SQL server is in a hosted environment where I don’t have physical access to the server so loading it with TSQL is not an option.

Answer 1

How about powershell?

# from: http://sev17.com/2010/05/t-sql-tuesday-006-blobs-filestream-and-powershell/
#
$server = "superfly\sqlexpress"
$database = "Yak"
$query = "INSERT dbo.FileStore VALUES (@FileData, @FileName)"
$filepath = "d:\yak.txt"
$FileName = get-childitem $filepath | select -ExpandProperty Name

$connection=new-object System.Data.SqlClient.SQLConnection
$connection.ConnectionString="Server={0};Database={1};Integrated Security=True" -f $server,$database
$command=new-object system.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand($query,$connection)
$command.CommandTimeout=120
$connection.Open()

$fs = new-object System.IO.FileStream($filePath,[System.IO.FileMode]'Open',[System.IO.FileAccess]'Read')
$buffer = new-object byte[] -ArgumentList $fs.Length
$fs.Read($buffer, 0, $buffer.Length)
$fs.Close()

$command.Parameters.Add("@FileData", [System.Data.SqlDbType]"VarBinary", $buffer.Length)
$command.Parameters["@FileData"].Value = $buffer
$command.Parameters.Add("@FileName", [System.Data.SqlDbType]"NChar", 50)
$command.Parameters["@FileName"].Value = $FileName
$command.ExecuteNonQuery()

$connection.Close()