Well, it seems to me that the confusion comes from the fact that we are comparing apples and oranges.
I agree. Images in a database mean totally different things to different usage profiles.
But I would also like to question the extra layer. Not that MySQL doesn't
have better caching, that is possible, but it adds and extra layer to the
process because MySQL still stores the data on the drive. Also, does the
web server cache images? If so, then we are ahead of the game even more.
I think the extra layer is a mixed blessing. Yes, it can slow things down. But at the same time, it can use caching to make up for the slowdown in many cases, especially when writing. What the extra layer provides is structure and ease of use and (depending on your setup) security. For many applications, the benefits outweigh the costs. There are certainly many applications (high traffic sites come to mind) where file-based is the way to go, or at least an extensive caching system would be required.
From: Gerard Samuel [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] I disagree. Depending on your setup, when a file based image is downloaded to a user's computer, its cached there. No need to fetch it again, till it expires. I don't think thats possible via images from a database, but I may be wrong. Feel free to correct me...
Actually, the real problem these days with browsers is that you can't get them to STOP caching! At least in my experience, properly used headers don't even stop caching pages quite 100% of the time. If you retrieve an image from the database via url-encoded stuff (i.e. mysite.com/image.php?id=234) the browser will probably cache it no problem unless you send no-cache headers.
This is obviously a bit of a hot issue. I think that anybody seriously interested in this should try it with his or her setup and see how it works. I bet that for most people, it won't be a big deal at all. But for a few others, if implemented across their whole site, it could cause lots of CPU usage problems.
Give it a try. You might like it.
-Galen
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