win32 & 64
11.5+
Client Networking
Greetings.
Searched high and low on community and knoledgwbase, but couldn't find...
Is there some reference on using twain scanners on our systems? to add document storage option to applications?
What's the current status/advice?
Thanks
Not sure about the use of scanners etc but think about your storage design very carefully before implementing.
We attach invoice images to our invoice records using BLOBS. They work really well in some senses - you can get the info out really easily again. But they waste so much space in the database. The database isn't meant to be a file store.
If I was designing some such storage again in future I would do something along the following lines:
Create a file system on a server somewhere where only the AppServer credentials have read/write access. The AppServer then places the images in a pre-determined location on the file store and retrieves it on request. That way the mechanics of the system are obfuscated from the user and they have to use the system to get the info back. You can also use the DB to grant/deny access easily. And the files are stored on a file server not a DB server doing the wrong job.
Hope that makes sense! :)
wow...
Really solid gold advice..
Thank you....
I bet that's the way to do it...An dwill do,.. the only thing that remains is where to get a dll, or some .net thingy to aquire...
Thanks Again
The downside of James's approach is you'll have two places to secure, maintain, and backup, you're not assured of transactional integrity, the filesystem will not have replication capabilities, etc. Basically you lose a great deal of the features you use a database - and a db admin system - for.
You're going to use the space whether it's in the db or on a filesystem - IMO its better to create a CLOB/BLOB area, drop your documents, etc. in there, and treat it like all the other data.
We store digital signatures in a CLOB field today with no issues.
Both James and Tim's advice sound solid...
I think we are leaving out of the equation, the quantity factor. As @rblanchard, says, he handles signature files seamlesly, but perhaps James is got thounsands of even more of images on database, so it becames unnecesarilly big it's database extents? The external solution sound good, as you can move files from disk to disk and on system just change a configuration record. Not necesarilly easy as that would be moving db extents..?
We process 100's of signatures per day. Each signature can be anywhere from 10K to 50K depending on the physical sigcap device. We used to store sigs outside of DB but that caused us many issues when customer migrated to new hardware....they would not remember to move sigs!!
Well, there's your problem .... backing up and restoring ... whatever were you thinking of? :)