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Need to access binary data via http connection

  • October 6, 2017 at 6:02 am

    #325784

    Hi,

    Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question.

    I am looking into using SQL Server 2016 as a document store. I know that SQL Server 2016 is up to the job, but I have two questions.

    1. The maximum files size allowed will be 100MB's, but the average will be around 3MB's. It is expected to hold approx 10,000 documents. Is the Binary datatype better or would FileStreams be the better solution?
    2. I need to access the files via HTTP. Would this need an application, or does SQL Server have a web interface to enable this?

    Paul.

  • October 6, 2017 at 8:15 am

    #1962629

    As always, it depends.   I have yet to work with FILESTREAM, but the important thing to know about that is that your access to the data via SQL Server will still be dependent on those physical files if that's the route you choose.   If you use a binary data type, is there any inherent formatting that would affect display of the data?   Are these "documents" formatted in any meaningful way beyond the inherent set of things like carriage returns (CHAR(13)) and line feeds (CHAR(10))?  SQL Server's primary means of accessing data from the web is SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services), and you could certainly create a report, but would probably have to convert that binary field to varchar(max) for display purposes, so you might just end up storing it that way to begin with.  Of course, this assumes that you don't have any inherent formatting, such as these files are all Word documents or some other application's saved data, where perhaps only that application can make sense of the data.   You'll probably have to try and test out various methods to see which one works best.   There may be some other folks here that have made use of FILESTREAM, who can better advise you on it's usage.

    Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
    Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)

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