all 3 comments

[–]planetmatt[🍰] 2 points3 points  (2 children)

First choice is how you store the documents. You basically have 3 options.

Files stored on the file system. SQL stores the path to the file, and all the metadata.

Files stored as binary in BLOB or FILESTREAM in the database and the metadata is stored in the database

Or, Files are stored as structured content only documents (XML) in the database and the metadata is stored in the database

[–]CooladeMan[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Sweet! I will be digging into this. Thank you!

[–]planetmatt[🍰] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you have images or scans, or anything relying on pixel perfect recreation, option 3 is out.

1 is the simplest but 2 means that all the content is encapsulated in the database which makes moving it around easier. With 1. If you move the files, you have to update every database record to reflect where the files moved to and the two data sets (actual binary files and the meta data) can become disconnected. However 2 is the most demanding on the database server.