> I can give another reason for storing files in Blobs (if they are not
> big). For instance, many branches use the same desktop application but
> they cannot have access directly to a common folder. Also, if the
> number of images are big storing in a single folder is not feasible.
> You will need to start find ways to manage them. We have a customer
> with 250.000 images in a single database. Managing they in the disk is
> troublesome.

> Best regards,
> Eduardo Mauro
> Acabit Tecnologia

I use a simple method for addressing thousands of files on disk.
Each file has an integer ID(numeric(18,0)).
At the base of the file storage are folders from 000 through to 999.
The ID of the file then tested:
if shorter than 3 characters, it's padded with zeroes (1 becomes 001)
if longer than 3 characters, the last three are chopped off (5882365 becomes
365)
The file is then stored/referenced from that folder.
Works brilliantly on Windows 2000 server and FreeBSD servers. Haven't
installed it on anything else yet.

As pointed out, it's still susceptible to files being deleted/moved/becoming
out of sync with the index, but that's what the spiders are for...;-)

Good thread! Some great issues thrown around!

N.