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...
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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