Hi,

I hope you can help me, I have touched mysql & phpMyAdmin for the first time last week. I suspect the solution is very simple... alas.

I would like to create a field, "attachment", in a table, "reports", that contains a hyperlink to a file (usually .pdf, .jpg & .doc).

I have managed attaching jpg's using the type "Long BLOB" and MIME transformations, but I suspect that this method actually includes the attached jpg in the database. Ideally I would like the files (about 20GB in total and growing), to physically remain where they are; but include a "shortcut" in the database, so that I can launch/download them from phpMyAdmin. Also, if there is a solution that makes it easy'ish for non-programmers to attach files it would be great.

I should also mention, that to my shame, this is for a system running on "that other OS".. Its for work..

Please help!

As long as the URL can be accessed from whatever host is clicking it, it is just a text field in the database like a username or cityname or any other common field... how you deal with it in the app that's using the database is another story-- If remote people are going to access it over say the web you're going to need a webserver, if they're accessing it on a share, you'll need the share accessible to them, etc.

Lets say you have a table of urls and date they were entered and by whom. user,date,url lets say is the table structure... your data might look like this:
using the example you gave of say, jpgs maybe this:
Your application that is using the database has to determine how to display this information or present it to the user... for all it matters the database could just contain a filename and the application builds the rest of the url.

1 members found this post helpful.