# Files Storing!! Which is best (blob or link to file)?? **URL:** \ **Category:** Classic Servoy\ **Created:** [March 2, 2004, 4:51am UTC](https://forum.servoy.com/t/files-storing-which-is-best-blob-or-link-to-file/1404 "2004-03-02T04:51:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ahmad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a4c791/32.png) [@ahmad](https://forum.servoy.com/u/ahmad)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2004, 4:51am UTC](https://forum.servoy.com/t/files-storing-which-is-best-blob-or-link-to-file/1404/1 "2004-03-02T04:51:04Z")
Hi there, We are planning to develop different solutions which allows to store the images and all other kind of digital media (like audio, video, documents (word, excel, pdf, zip etc..) ) Just in dilemma to decide how to store them. Question 1: Which would be the better way?? To store all these kind of digital media in Media field or store the files in a seperate folders and give the links to the file?? Question 2: Would there be any performance issue if we use media fields to store heavy files?? How fast a 50MB file would be loaded into a blob field from outside the local area network?? Your answers will be really helpful Thanks Ahmad ---
**Author:** ![Jan\_Blok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/41988e/32.png) [@Jan\_Blok](https://forum.servoy.com/u/Jan_Blok)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2004, 10:01am UTC](https://forum.servoy.com/t/files-storing-which-is-best-blob-or-link-to-file/1404/2 "2004-03-02T10:01:50Z")
1. blob field is less vulnerable to errors, the file cannot be lost 2. streaming a file via al link from the server is more efficient than using a blob (if the files are bigger than several MB’s) ---
**Author:** ![idoctor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a88e4f/32.png) [@idoctor](https://forum.servoy.com/u/idoctor)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2004, 5:55am UTC](https://forum.servoy.com/t/files-storing-which-is-best-blob-or-link-to-file/1404/3 "2004-03-03T05:55:46Z")
I wrote an application that tracks hundreds of thoasands of JPEG and PDF applications in filemaker. I had to use links to the files in this situation. I have rewritten in Servoy using MS SQL as the backend. The coding is much more complex if you keep the individual files in a backend database. John McCann ---
**Author:** ![idoctor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a88e4f/32.png) [@idoctor](https://forum.servoy.com/u/idoctor)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 4:57am UTC](https://forum.servoy.com/t/files-storing-which-is-best-blob-or-link-to-file/1404/4 "2004-03-11T04:57:27Z")
To clarify my own comment. The coding is much more complex if you keep the individual files on a file server. It is much less complex if you keep the files in a backend database. John McCann ---
**Author:** ![janber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@janber](https://forum.servoy.com/u/janber)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2004, 8:13pm UTC](https://forum.servoy.com/t/files-storing-which-is-best-blob-or-link-to-file/1404/5 "2004-05-03T20:13:48Z")
I was wondering what kind of path one should use to open a file on say an X Server. I ran different tries ; like afp:/at/… ip:192.168… Nothing seems to work ---
**Author:** ![Jan\_Blok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/41988e/32.png) [@Jan\_Blok](https://forum.servoy.com/u/Jan_Blok)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2004, 8:46pm UTC](https://forum.servoy.com/t/files-storing-which-is-best-blob-or-link-to-file/1404/6 "2004-05-03T20:46:37Z")
open within where? ---
**Author:** ![janber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@janber](https://forum.servoy.com/u/janber)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2004, 9:00pm UTC](https://forum.servoy.com/t/files-storing-which-is-best-blob-or-link-to-file/1404/7 "2004-05-03T21:00:17Z")
Well actually I found the answer; In fact we have an existing application that scans and stores documents (contracts) on an OS X file server in pdf format All client computers have access to the file server To open the corresponding contract from the Servoy application the filename path in Os X is /Volumes/name\_of\_remote\_disk/name\_of\_folder/filename code is application.executeProgram(“open”, /Volumes/name\_of\_remote\_disk/name\_of\_folder/filename);