Conference amcucs::ms-sqlsvr

352.0. "How to handle large text data?" by TKOVOA::NGOV20::GOTO () Fri Mar 21 1997 02:37

Hi, folks,

Our group is now developing what we call a minuites system where
the customer keeps the conferece memo on the web using SQL Server
6.5 on WNT4.0.   My question has to do with how to deal with
handling large text data.  Please anyone who can help me, please
reply.

[Development Environment]
  Database Server
	SQL Server6.5 SP2(NT3.51SP4 at office��NT4.0SP1 at customer site)
  Web Sever(Database Client)
	Internet Information Server 2.0(NT4.0SP1)
	ODBC of SQL Server (IIS)
  Web Client
	Netscape Navigator 3.0J
	(Macintos /Windows95/WindowsNT4)

[What I'd like to know]

  How to handle large data without going with CGI
  How to handle, instead, large data with IDC

[What I have done]

  I have been trying to add, inquire, change the text data with more than
  255 bytes.  My understanding is that what we can put for the IDC file
  is only what Transact-SQL can do.  No better than that.  

  What I have done is as follows. 

  1. I used SELECT��READTEXT/WRITETEXT becuase SELECT��INSERT��UPDATE cannot
     handle text data. 
  
     But because of the limits of IDC, only SELECT command is effective
     with HTML temp file (HTX file) if you execute a multiple SELECT 
     commands for one inquiry.

     Due to this possible limitation, when we try to refer, we get only 
     the first 255 bytes out of repeated SELECT��READTEXT among WHILE 
     BEGIN��END statements in the IDC file.
         
2.   Because of the problem above, I could not store SELECT��READTEXT
     in the DECLARE vaiable where I wanted to give combined HTX output
     to HTX file after storing varchar variable.

3.   Then I tried  to store the data after I break into varchar type
     records without using text type.
     When I tried to store, I directly tried to break by 255 bytes with
     substring function without assigning text into variables.  What
     happened was that I was told that I could not handle text type by
     substring fundction because the system took this as text even
     though I did not assign into variables.

A series of my trials failed.  Do you know any way to handle the
large size of text data with IDC?  Or the only way is to go with
CGI, which I am not familar with?

Shoji Goto / Digital Japan PSC (Nagoya)

	Maybe the answer is to not put the text in the database.  I have a
	customer that was dealing with thousands of video and audio files.
	Rather than put them directly in the database, they put them in
	flat files and then had pointers to them in the database.  Worked
	very well.

tgc