Stored procedure: Export/import images to SQL Server

This stored procedure serves as an interface to the TextCopy utility that exports and imports images and documnets to SQL Server.

Here is how to use this procedure, assuming textcopy.exe is in c:mssqlbinn...

Then, to insert an image:

Reader Feedback

Hal S. writes: Eli Leiba's tip was the first time that I have actually been motivated to try out an image-oriented DBA tip. It finally worked. I would have given it a full 5 rating but there were a couple of gotcha's that I had to work around, as well as some security concerns:

1. C:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQLBinntextCopy.exe is the default location of the program on a default SQL Server 2000 install.

2. The extended stored procedure xp_cmdshell runs at default under the SysAdmin fixed server role, or under the SQL Server Agent proxy account. Security policies and hotfixes may interfere with the ability to use the xp's, depending on the site.

3. It only updates one record at a time, an update query would be an interesting and slow to run exercise.

4. There are text-in-data-row implications, as well as locking issues for the particular row for long updates.

5. The file attribute data (e.g. created, modified, etc) is not copied.

6. Secondary data streams do not appear to be supported (from a cursory examination of the underlying C++ code, but since I do C++ only under duress, I could be wrong).

After working with all the information Eli presented and my work-arounds, I was very pleased. The 257,490 byte JPEG that I used was ...

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byte wise identical to the original, except for time/date stamps. Also, since we were dealing with the whole file, I did not lose the camera information in the EXIF portion of the JPEG (as may happen with many image storage & manipulation utilities) which is a definite plus for me. All in all, it worked, and I can go on from here.

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