使用PHP显示上传的文件

Question

I'm creating an interactive website where the user can upload a file.All I want to do is how can I let the other users see this file? For example if some datas are saved into database I can make this using SELECT and then print these data. But if I have a file how can I make this file to be seen only (not downloaded) from users? So I just want to know what can I use to make this and don't want you to make this for me! So please if anyone has an ide please tell what should I learn to make this? Is it possible to save the file in a database in phpMyAdmin and to select then? If yes which is the type of the field I should use to save the file so varchar?

Answer 1

It depends on how you want the file to be saved. If it's a text file I would go with text. If it's an image or some other kind of media I would pick blob. You can take a look at What are the differences between the BLOB and TEXT datatypes in MySQL? for more information on MySQL data types.

Another approach would be to save the file somewhere outside the database (in a directory tree somewhere) and save a filepath to that location in a varchar column. Many DBMS do not support group by on blob or clob columns so that is something to consider if portability is an issue, and it adds a layer of separation between your data and file storage.