Just hope to point out something very minor: this patch is stable enough, since 24/07/2007 (http://drupal.org/node/147947#comment-278902). Both Oracle (http://drupal.org/node/39260) and DB2 (http://drupal.org/node/165788) drivers are successfully implemented for drupal-6.x-dev based on this LOBs standardization. So, what are we still waiting for? On 8/30/07, Edison Wong <hswong3i@gmail.com> wrote:

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)