Displaying images stored in SQL Server

Question

Is there someway of displaying images stored within SQL
Server. Is FDS required? Prefer a method to display images without
using FDS; Web Service would be okay if that can work

Answer 1

I do that sort of thing using PHP and mySQL the binary part
of the image is stored in a BLOB field (Binary Large OBject) along
the rest of the information necessary for the http headers (e.g.
mime type, file name, file size) being staored in their own fields.
That info is then used to build the file using PHP. The PHP
file contains a mySQL query whos result is echoed with the
appropriate headers. The URL points at the PHP file rather than at
any saved image.
Here's the php:
<?
# display_imagebank_file.php
# Note: the ID is passed through the url e.g.
# this_files_name.php?id=1
# connect to mysql database
mysql_connect('HOST', 'USERNAME', 'PASSWORD');
mysql_select_db('DATABASE');
# run a query to get the file information
$query = mysql_query("SELECT FileName, MimeType, FileSize,
FileContents FROM blobTable WHERE ID='$id'");
# perform an error check
if(mysql_num_rows($query)==1){
$fileName = mysql_result($query,0,0);
$fileType = mysql_result($query,0,1);
$fileSize = mysql_result($query,0,2);
$fileContents = mysql_result($query,0,3);
header("Content-type: $fileType");
header("Content-length: $fileSize");
header("Content-Disposition: inline; filename=$fileName");
header("Content-Description: from imagebank");
header("Connection: close");
echo $fileContents;
}else{
$numRows = mysql_num_rows($query);
echo "File not found <br>";
echo $numRows;
echo " is the number of rows returned for id = ";
echo $ID;
?>
Hope that helps
Phil