[ale] Question: Transparent document sharing over the Internet

Geoffrey esoteric at 3times25.net
Thu Jun 9 08:53:44 EDT 2005


Chris Fowler wrote:
> The reason why I bring it up is because a few years back I wanted to
> create a DB with all my MP3's and store them as BLOBs in MySQL.  A few
> people on this list frowned about that idea an recommend the file route.
> 
> Obviously a webapp has to be created.  The files can be stored and
> owned by the user that the webapp is running as.  And you do
> not actually give the user a link to the physical file that is on the 
> filesystem.  You use the webapp to feed them that file. 
> 
> There are _many_ ways this task can be accomplished.

It's no big deal if you're the only person accessing the files, but when 
you have multiple folks doing it, you have to control access to the 
files.  By putting the files in the database, you let the database 
control access.  If the files are separate, you've got to insure that 
the database access and file access are atomic processes.

I agree you'd have to build an interface, but I don't know that there is 
any secure way to do it without building an interface.  ssl maybe.

-- 
Until later, Geoffrey



More information about the Ale mailing list