[development] Final recall: standardize LOBs handling for D6

Edison Wong hswong3i at gmail.com
Thu Aug 30 06:48:25 UTC 2007


After an indeed studying about differences between ADOdb, PDO and Drupal 6.x database abstract layer, it show that we are still
missing a complete and standardized LOBs handling API, based on cross database compatibility concern (besides MySQL/PgSQL). 

Drupal 6.x existing database abstract layer provide db_encode_blob() and db_encode_blob() for BLOB handling only, as PgSQL require
special API for BLOB encode/decode (In case of MySQL, it is a dummy abstraction, as MySQL seems BLOB data as like as normal string).
BTW, this is not the complete picture of LOBs handling and its difficulties: besides BLOB, it is also a critical concern about
limitation on CHAR/VARCHAR/CLOB (Character Large OBject) among most database; moreover, method of LOBs INSERT/UPDATE is also
database specific.

LOBs patch for Drupal 6.x (http://drupal.org/node/147947) will able to fill in this missing section, extent and complete our LOBs
API functionality, with handy procedures. It should be the most common and strict forward solution when dueling with LOBs related
difficulties. On the other hand, it shouldn't be a confusion for normal MySQL users, as it is very closed to the case of existing
db_encode_blob() and db_decode_blob() implementation.

We shouldn't miss the chances, but our chances are waiting for this patch :)

(To view the thread, please navigate to http://edin.no-ip.com/html/?q=node/302)



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