Andre_Louis_Marquis@cup.portal.com (01/12/90)
What PC, UNIX and/or Mac databases support images as fields? There are a few special purpose databases such as Mediabase for the PC, but how about some of the more popular and portable ones, e.g. FoxBASE, Ingres? I'll summarize. Thanks. Andre Marquis andre_marquis@cup.portal.com
wahl@shodha.dec.com (David Wahl) (01/13/90)
-> What PC, UNIX and/or Mac databases support images as fields? What sort of images do you want to store, Andre? Most database managers support attributes which are uninterpreted byte strings. What sort of image size are you thinking of? Do you need any special sorts of indexing? Regards, Dave Wahl =================================================================== Digital Equipment Corporation Database Systems Research (CXN/2) 1175 Chapel Hills Drive Colorado Springs, CO 80920-2080 Tel 719-260-2758 Email: wahl%cookie.dec.com@decwrl.dec.com %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% % The opinions expressed are my own, not Digital's. % %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Andre_Louis_Marquis@cup.portal.com (01/17/90)
>-> What PC, UNIX and/or Mac databases support images as fields? > >What sort of images do you want to store, Andre? Most database >managers support attributes which are uninterpreted byte strings. >What sort of image size are you thinking of? Do you need any >special sorts of indexing? > >Regards, >Dave Wahl >=================================================================== >Digital Equipment Corporation >Database Systems Research (CXN/2) >1175 Chapel Hills Drive >Colorado Springs, CO 80920-2080 The most important property is that the database can display the image on the screen. An ideal database would accept multiple image formats as input and display the images as precisely as the hardware allows. Is 4th Dimension this flexible? I'm stuck dealing with everything from 16x16 monochrome bitmaps to 1152x900x24 bit images. 512x480x8 bits is about the minimum (~256K/image). Since you mentioned uninterpreded byte strings, what databases support even that? Product literature rarely mentions such things. Thanks. Andre Marquis andre_marquis@cup.portal.com
segel@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu (Gargoyle) (01/17/90)
In article <26017@cup.portal.com> Andre_Louis_Marquis@cup.portal.com writes: > >The most important property is that the database can display the image on the >screen. An ideal database would accept multiple image formats as input and >display the images as precisely as the hardware allows. Is 4th Dimension this >flexible? I'm stuck dealing with everything from 16x16 monochrome bitmaps to >1152x900x24 bit images. 512x480x8 bits is about the minimum (~256K/image). > >Since you mentioned uninterpreded byte strings, what databases support even >that? Product literature rarely mentions such things. Thanks. > >Andre Marquis >andre_marquis@cup.portal.com Try calling Informix. Our new product Online does support BLOBS (up to 2 Meg I think). The way that it is handled is that the image is stored in the database vs just storing a file descriptor. What is actually contained in the BLOB can be anything you want (voice , binary data, post-script, rasters, ect...) Now if you were smart, I would recommend stripping off the header of the image and storing the data in fields of the database and then compressing the image. You may want to mail aland@informix.com for more information. I'm not sure as to what I can say or not say. Besides I don't really want to push products over the net :-) To be fair, I don't know of any other database engines that allow for the BLOB to be stored in the engine. Silicon Graphics announced a product called PDL which is based on our standard engine. They claim that they can store images. (I am quoting from a newspaper product announcement not from actually seeing the product so there may be misinformation presented. ie std.disclaimer) Now, our standard engine could not store the image in the database only a file descriptor pointing to the image file. Maybe this is how other database products work? (I don't know, I am seriously asking.) I hope this helps. Mike Segel segel@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu or segel@informix.com (Yes I do work for informix) -- -Mike Segel segel@icarus.eng.ohio-state.edu (614) 294-3350 "These opinions are my own and in no way reflect those of the University or the E E Dept.(Although there are those who probably share them!)
willil@mentor.com (Willi Lohmann) (01/19/90)
In <26017@cup.portal.com>, Andre_Louis_Marquis@cup.portal.com writes >The most important property is that the database can display the image on the >screen. An ideal database would accept multiple image formats as input and >display the images as precisely as the hardware allows. Is 4th Dimension this >flexible? I'm stuck dealing with everything from 16x16 monochrome bitmaps to >1152x900x24 bit images. 512x480x8 bits is about the minimum (~256K/image). > >Since you mentioned uninterpreded byte strings, what databases support even >that? Product literature rarely mentions such things. Thanks. You might want to include Interbase in your search. They can handle the images in BLOB's inside or outside of the database. The BLOB's are unlimited in size. I'm not sure if they support the Mac, or if the database can actually display image data without you adding some sort of display code. Are there databases out there that can display image data? Since image data is produced at a specified dpi, I would think a pretty fancy program would be required to modify the image data for different dpi hardware without the source used to produce the image. bye - willi
noren@dinl.uucp (Charles Noren) (01/19/90)
In article <3952@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu> segel@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu (Gargoyle) writes: >In article <26017@cup.portal.com> Andre_Louis_Marquis@cup.portal.com writes: >> >>The most important property is that the database can display the image on the >>screen. An ideal database would accept multiple image formats as input and >>flexible? I'm stuck dealing with everything from 16x16 monochrome bitmaps to ... >>Since you mentioned uninterpreded byte strings, what databases support even >>that? Product literature rarely mentions such things. Thanks. > >Try calling Informix. Our new product Online does support BLOBS (up to >2 Meg I think). > ...sorry I joined the conversation late, Recently I developed an interface for SUN Pixrect Images to be stored in the Gemstone Database (Servio Logic, Beaverton OR, (503) 629-8283) for a product we developed. Gemstone can accept "string" data (unsigned bytes) objects up to 2^31 - 1 bytes in length, more than enough to store the images we need. Since the images are stored directly inside our Gemstone database, the O-O features of Gemstone permit to manipulate the image in some interesting ways. Another database that can handle large byte data for direct storage of images is Sybase (Colorado rep is (303) 721-3308, who can get you in touch with other rep's). Sybase is working with VI Corp., (makers of the DataViews graphics package) to make a bridge between DataViews and Sybase. What this actually is, I don't know, but you can call Jim Lee of VI Corp, (415) 493-9222 for further information. Hope this helps, -- Chuck Noren NET: ncar!dinl!noren US-MAIL: Martin Marietta I&CS, MS XL8058, P.O. Box 1260, Denver, CO 80201-1260 Phone: (303) 971-7930
peterson_s@apollo.HP.COM (Steve Peterson) (01/19/90)
In article <3952@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu> segel@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu writes: >To be fair, I don't know of any other database engines that allow for >the BLOB to be stored in the engine. A product named InterBase has had this capability since I started using it back in June 1987. A nice feature that BLOBs have in their latest version, Version 3, is what they call BLOB filters. BLOBs can have an type associated to them, whereby a BLOB filter can be stored in the database and automatically called for input and output while accessing a BLOB in a program or one of their utilities. You can contact Interbase at: Interbase Software Corp. 209 Burlington Road Bedford, MA 01730 Ph#: 617-275-3222 FAX#: 617-271-0221 Stephen Peterson ARPA: peterson_s@apollo.hp.com Phone#: 508/256-6600 x8571 UUCP: {decwrl!decvax, mit-eddie, attunix}!apollo!peterson_s USPS: Apollo Computer, MS CHM 01 SS, 220 Mill Road, Chelmsford, MA 01824
nickerso@bdofed.UUCP (b) (02/02/90)
In article <1513@dinl.mmc.UUCP> noren@dinl.UUCP (Charles Noren) writes: %In article <3952@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu> segel@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu (Gargoyle) writes: %>In article <26017@cup.portal.com> Andre_Louis_Marquis@cup.portal.com writes: %>> %>>The most important property is that the database can display the image on the %>>screen. An ideal database would accept multiple image formats as input and %>>flexible? I'm stuck dealing with everything from 16x16 monochrome bitmaps to Empress RDBMS can handle the bitmaps of any size (limited by your filesystem only). As far as displaying the image, you can compile graphics functions into the 4GL itself. I have seen this done on a SUN workstation. %>>Since you mentioned uninterpreded byte strings, what databases support even %>>that? Product literature rarely mentions such things. Thanks. %> %>Try calling Informix. Our new product Online does support BLOBS (up to %>2 Meg I think). Empress uses what they call bulk datatype. It is just a stream of bytes. In version 4.0 they can even handle importing and exporting bulk datatypes. You can get in touch with Empress at (416)922-1743 in Canada (Toronto). They also have an office in the US (near Washington, Greenbelt MD I think) but I don't know the number off the top of my head. You should be able to get it from their ads in some of the industry magazines. They support UNIX, MS-DOS and VMS. I don't know if they plan on supporting MacIntosh (maybe AUX is supported). Thanks Bill Nickerson Etobicoke Board of Education