Question

What would be the best method to implement the following scenario:
The web site calls for a image gallery that has both private and public images to be stored. I’ve heard that you can either store them in a file hierarchy or a database. In a file hierarchy setup how would prevent direct access to the image. In a database setup access to the images would only be possible via the web page view. What would be a effective solution to pursue?

[Edit] Thanks all for the responses. I decided that the database route is the best option for this application since I do not have direct access to the server. Confined to a webroot folder. All the responses were most appreciated.

Answer 1

Having used both methods I’d say go with the database. If you store them on the filestore and they need protecting then you’d have to store them outside the web-root and then use a handler (like John mentions) to retrieve them, anyway. It’s as easy to write a handler to stream them direct from database and you get a few advantages:

• With database you don’t need to worry about filestore permissions or generating unique filenames or folder hierarchies etc.
• With database you can easily apply permissions and protection directly – no trying to work out who can view what based on paths etc.
• With a database you can store the image and metadata all together – when you delete the metadata you delete the image – no possibility of orphaned records where you delete from database but not from filestore
• Easier to back-up database and images and then restore

The disadvantage is that of performance, but you can use caching etc. to help with that. You can also use FILESTREAM storeage in SQL Server 2008 (and 05?) which means you get filesystem performance but via the DB:

“FILESTREAM integrates the SQL Server
Database Engine with an NTFS file
system by storing varbinary(max)
binary large object (BLOB) data as
files on the file system. Transact-SQL
statements can insert, update, query,
search, and back up FILESTREAM data.
Win32 file system interfaces provide
streaming access to the data.

FILESTREAM uses the NT system cache
for caching file data. This helps
reduce any effect that FILESTREAM data
might have on Database Engine
performance. The SQL Server buffer
pool is not used; therefore, this
memory is available for query
processing.”