Hi Neo,
Well, since you've mentioned that you're not intereseted in doing anything
other than alternating text with images (if I understand you correctly), the
solution should be fairly simple (depending upon your view of what
constitutes "simple" of course!).
Again, keeping it as simple as possible, you only need the 2 tables
(although I abhor the idea of storing images in a database, but it's your
app). The images table only needs a binary field to store the image, and
perhaps a field to store the image file name. You would also want a foreign
key field to point to the blog entry record that the image is associated
with.
For your interface, you will still need an image upload form. How this form
is structured is going to be up to you, but it sounds like you might want to
upload multiple images with a single blog entry. If so, you will need
multiple file upload elements in the page. You may want to be able to
dynamically add them, but that's going to entail a bit more programming
skill. Let's leave that alone for now, and get to how the image is
referenced in the blog entry.
The simplest solution I can think of for this is to use some sort of
convention in the text of the blog entry, where you want the image to
appear. Now, let's assume for the sake of simplicity that you will have
enough file upload fields to handle however many images you are putting in.
All you would need then is some sort of token in the text to indicate that
an image goes in there. Example:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Quisque in
risus sit amet ante ornare tincidunt. Pellentesque ac nisl vitae sapien
pharetra aliquet. Donec orci risus, tincidunt pellentesque, facilisis id,
consequat non, lorem. Aenean eget nunc. Sed ligula nulla, congue in,
condimentum vitae, elementum nec, odio. [img]Nullam quam. Aliquam eu lectus.
Nunc tristique. Nulla iaculis. Donec non metus sagittis massa facilisis
rhoncus. [img]Donec massa risus, convallis et, tincidunt non, dignissim ut,
ante. Nullam eleifend. Cras molestie justo vitae nibh. Mauris ultrices
pellentesque velit. Duis ipsum eros, mollis quis, tempus et, iaculis at,
arcu. Nunc non mi.
Note the [img] tokens in the text. This would be stored in the database as
part of the text. The images will appear in the form in the order in which
you put them, so the first image would replace the first token, the second
would replace the second, and so on. Now, you have a choice here as to how
to enumerate the images according to their position in the blog entry. One
would be to use the image file name in the token, as in [file1.jpg]. The
other would be to use a numeric column to store the order in the database.
As to how the images get included in the HTML output, first, you would need
to replace the tokens in the text with a URL of an ASP.Net page that will
return an image. You can use a single ASP.Net page to do this, and use a
querystring to identify the image being displayed, as in
"/images/image.aspx?id=123." In the page that contains the blog entry, there
would be an image tag for each image, something like: <img
src=""/images/image.aspx?id=123"> . The ASP.Net page that returns the image
would read the querystring, and fetch the image from the database, setting
the Response.ContentType to "image/jpg" and writing the image back to the
Response.OutputStream. In a sense, the ASP.Net page would *be* the image.
Let me know if you need more information about how to do this.
How does that sound for a solution?
--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
You can lead a fish to a bicycle,
but it takes a very long time,
and the bicycle has to *want* to change.
[QUOTE="Kevin"]
Hi Neo,
Well, storing images in a database is expensive in terms of memory and
processing involved, but you can store them however you wish. In any case,
you will still need to upload them via the browser user interface.
As to the server "inserting" an image into a page, again, that's all done
via HTML text. How it's done, I can't tell you. You're writing the app.
There are any number of ways to do it. But they all involve writing HTML
and CSS into an HTML document. Positioning images in an HTML document is
not exactly a piece of cake, especially when it comes to wrapping text
around them. But again, however you want to describe the back end, and
however it interfaces with the front end, ultimately you're writing an
HTML editor.
A web-based HTML editor is a daunting task to design, especially when it
comes to mixing text and images. You may want to have a look at some of
the free code that's out there, and modify it to suit your needs. Here are
a few links if you're interested:
http://www.411asp.net/home/webapps/htmlcode
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Freeware/Editors/HTML/
http://www.geniisoft.com/showcase.nsf/WebEditors
http://www.cmsreview.com/WYSIWYG/OpenSource/directory.html
http://www.netmag.co.uk/downloads/default.asp?subsectionid=489&subsubsectionid=118[/QUOTE]
Please understand, I am *not* trying to create an on-line HTML editor. I
am looking for a way to create database tables and ASP.NET code, such
that images drawn from the database can be interleaved with text drawn
from the same database, all in a preconfigured sequence.
That is, when I create a post, I want to be able to include several
images, such that the post goes like this:
text
image
text
image
image
text
Normally, in a simple blog, the database has just one table and three or
four fields for that table (aside from the primary key): the date, the
title, the body and the category. I know I will have to create a
separate table for holding the images (to make the db normalized), but
how would I go around structuring the database so that the interleaving
above can take place? Please understand, any ASP.NET that I have to
create should be easy for me. What I am asking for is a conceptual idea
on how to create a normalized, elegant, and simple database that will
allow me to serve both text *and* images, interleaved, from the same
database.
The only really robust method that I have come up with so far involves
three tables: One for the post, one for the images, and a third for the
post text. That way, the post can reference both the text and the
images, and as such, the latter two can be interleaved as per
instructions in a "layout" field in the post table.
Instead of the above kludge, I am looking for a two-table solution. My
only other option is to have all images sitting off to one side,
separate from the body of the blog post. This is undesirable for several
reasons which I will not get into here, but I will implement that method
before I have to resort to the three-table method.
....Geshel
--
***********************************************************************
* My reply-to is an automatically monitored spam honeypot. Do not use *
* it unless you want to be blacklisted by SpamCop. Please reply to my *
* first name at my last name dot org. *
***********************************************************************
"Anyone who believes in Intelligent Design ("creationism") is just as
ignorant and ill-educated as someone who believes that the world is
flat, that the Sun circles the Earth or that there really is a tooth
fairy. Darwinism has an overwhelming foundation of evidence that can be
tested and reproduced. Intelligent Design, on the other hand, has no
evidence at all; not one single shred of testable proof. As such,
Intelligent Design is Religious Mythology, and has no right whatsoever
to be in our Science classrooms." - 99.99+% of Scientists
***********************************************************************
Mignon McLaughlin once said that "A nymphomaniac is a woman [who is] as
obsessed with sex as the average man." Unfortunately, since true
nymphomaniacs are so rare, this means that it takes an extraordinary
woman to keep up with an ordinary man.
***********************************************************************
