Hey, Jim, I just noticed that when I upload a picture it is listed twice under "complete list"--all the info (number, title, size, etc) is completely duplicated. This may mean each upload doubles the amount of bytes for each picture, I'm not sure. When I delete a file it deletes "both" files.
No, the file itself is stored in the regular file system of the sever (just like storing it on your hard drive.) What you are seeing on the upload page is the database information. The database just holds meta information about the picture (who uploaded it, when, where it's stored in the actual file system, etc...) This meta information is stored multiple times (once for each place the picture appears: complete list, etc....) But the picture itself is only stored once.
I loved that you even noticed this might be an issue. This is a central tenet of what might too grandly be called information architecture. Store the body of information once, and then abstract just enough meta information to uniquely identify the body, and use this for all cross referencing.
The same thing happens in the main text system. Each post appears again on the comment page, but the entire text isn't stored twice in the database. Instead each post has a unique identifier, and this ID is what is stored twice, not the post itself. Compacting space like this really gives some people a good feeling...
I should have mentioned that new pictures are actually referenced three times on the upload page. I believe this is a glitch that has appeared since the weekend. For example, picture 1766 appears once in the category I selected for it (Elevator) and twice in the Complete List. I'm glad to hear it's only metainformation, and that the server isn't filling up with double jpegs, but the upload list is going to get really long with so many triple entries. Thanks for the explanation, though; I like knowing how the site works!
I'll check this out. I wasn't understanding the problem at first. But yeah, it won't be a space problem. Still a pain though, as you mention.
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- tom moody 10-22-2002 5:59 am
No, the file itself is stored in the regular file system of the sever (just like storing it on your hard drive.) What you are seeing on the upload page is the database information. The database just holds meta information about the picture (who uploaded it, when, where it's stored in the actual file system, etc...) This meta information is stored multiple times (once for each place the picture appears: complete list, etc....) But the picture itself is only stored once.
I loved that you even noticed this might be an issue. This is a central tenet of what might too grandly be called information architecture. Store the body of information once, and then abstract just enough meta information to uniquely identify the body, and use this for all cross referencing.
The same thing happens in the main text system. Each post appears again on the comment page, but the entire text isn't stored twice in the database. Instead each post has a unique identifier, and this ID is what is stored twice, not the post itself. Compacting space like this really gives some people a good feeling...
- jim 10-22-2002 8:15 am [add a comment]
I should have mentioned that new pictures are actually referenced three times on the upload page. I believe this is a glitch that has appeared since the weekend. For example, picture 1766 appears once in the category I selected for it (Elevator) and twice in the Complete List. I'm glad to hear it's only metainformation, and that the server isn't filling up with double jpegs, but the upload list is going to get really long with so many triple entries. Thanks for the explanation, though; I like knowing how the site works!
- tom moody 10-22-2002 6:22 pm [add a comment]
I'll check this out. I wasn't understanding the problem at first. But yeah, it won't be a space problem. Still a pain though, as you mention.
- jim 10-22-2002 6:56 pm [add a comment]