Relational database tool, which can display PDF blobs - database

I would like to collect my orders in a very simple relational database with some PDFs inside binary a field. I would like to easily browse the PDFs without building a frontend. There are many SQL admin tools available which are perfect for browsing the databases, but I have not found any free tools which could display the PDFs inside it or open them easily.
Which existing free and platform independent tool is able to show PDFs in a database?
For example:
SqlLite Studio has a "Edit value" window, which can display the stored image.
SQLMastro is able to do it, but is not free.
Images can also be shown in LibreOffice Base and Microsoft Access.
In MS Access VBA it is possible to embed ActiveX applications or open a PDF stored at a path, but MS is not platform independent and VBA is very messy.
I would also be happy, if it would actually store a copy of the file temporary on the harddrive and automatically open it. I just want a single click solution.
I did not specify the actual database format, as I am happy to use any relation database which has such a tool already. I want to use some database instead of a magical folder structure.

Related

How to read an old Jet 3.5 database?

I am trying to investigate an old DB file that used to have a custom front-end that dose not work anymore because of corrupted files.
The only clue I got is that it uses an old driver, a DAO Jet 3.5 (I have the driver installation file), and it used to run under windows XP.
The DB file itself doesn't have a known file extension.
What are my options for manually exploring the database?
If the file has no extension, it might not be a Jet database. But assuming it is, there are a few options...
MS Access would be the most obvious thing to try, but it can fail on old enough database files.
An alternative is MDB Viewer Plus which can open and read very old MDB files, with a nice GUI. It is perfect for "manual exploration" of an MDB file.
http://www.alexnolan.net/software/mdb_viewer_plus.htm
MDB Viewer Plus is a freeware viewer plus editor for opening Microsoft
Access MDB and ACCDB database files. It does not need to be installed
to run. It uses Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) which is
installed as part of Windows.
MDB Viewer Plus has been written to provide a free, quick and easy way
to open, view, edit, filter, sort, import to, export from, modify and
search MDB and ACCDB files. This is useful for software developers
like myself who use Access databases as a backend database for their
bespoke software. MDB Viewer Plus provides a convenient way to view
and edit these databases.

how do i determine oracle database name of data source

I've been searching around and haven't found anything on my scenario that I understand:
I have a list of all of the Oracle databases and corresponding servers that my company owns (about 80 servers 150 databases). I am trying to figure out which one a specific file is being downloaded from (from a webpage).
I am mechanical engineer, not in software so if you could eli5 that would be very helpful.
Specifically I need the SID name, but figuring out the server name
would also be helpful.
Your question is kind of tricky here. if your downloading the file from web application(I assuming it is a Java webapp), oracle database could act as either the data store or a report server that can generate the oracle reports directly
In the first case, you need to find out if what kind of file you are downloading?
is it a PDF? is it a excel file? or just text file or anything? the best idea is to check out the file link and then decide what software generating this file. it could be any software in back end to generate the file like, POI(for generating excel file), or even a direct file link, but not oracle at all.
Also, In this case, the file is usually generated at backend by server-let. You need ask the developer which report or file generating engine they are employing. and if oracle database is also being used, it is usually providing the data fro that report or file engine.
In the second case, you can just check out the the URL and give it to the webmaster asking them which oracle server it is using. it is usually configured in the web server.

Storing Database Locally in File/Folder

I'm in the middle of doing a personal project and would like to create a system of three components.
A simple form application that would allow the user to input data into a database.
A database of multiple tables.
An excel spreadsheet that queries the database.
At this point in the project, there is a desire for the database to be stored on the PC of the person working on the project and for all three components of the project to have the ability to be zipped up in a folder and emailed around. I know how to code well enough to query databases from applications and excel, but how can I go about creating a database that can be stored in a specific folder so it can be emailed around?
Thanks!
Look into sql compact edition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_Server_Compact
http://xldennis.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/using-sql-server-compact-edition-database-with-excel/
MS Access might also be an option here.

Extract Binary Data from SQL Server using T-SQL

I have a database to which I upload files (such as PDFs, images, etc). I save these to the database as Varbinary (max).
I upload these files using C# MVC. What I was wondering is how can I view these files using a T-SQL query, not .net.
Is this possible?
Not directly.
Why don't you write a simple viewer application?
There are free and commercial ones out there. I haven't used this one, but it does have a trial version: SQL Image Viewer
No, you need to extract the files in order to view them.
SQL Server and SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) don't have a facility to view binary data in this way.
You can use the sp_OAxxxx functions (the COM interaction functions) to create the appropriate viewers, but ultimately these viewer will require the data written to disk.

SQl Server 2008 FILESTREAM, Indexing Services, and FTS

I need to implement a service to search PDFs. Initially I started using SQL Server 2008 FTS, but soon realized that my PDFs would have to be stored in the DB itself. I was then pointed to Indexing Services as well as to the SQL 2008 FILESTREAM data type so that I can store PDFs in the file system. So how do these three (Indexing Services, FTS, and the FILESTREAM option) relate with each other? Do I need to use all three together to implement my search?
Also, Do hosting services like DiscountASP typically have these enabled? Or should I consider switching to Lucene.NET?
WE used to use a PDF iFilter which allows you to store the PDF in the DB and then perform a FTS against it. HOwever, we now convert our PDFs to text and store the text in the full text index. This allows us to store all our docs now (we store .doc, .pdf etc) in the same index.
DiscountASP does allow FTS /iFTS on the hosted database.
If you know in advance what you want to find (eg you get hundreds of PDFs a day and will need to find the ones with certain "known-before-reception" strings then you could make a text version on reception, create index entries for the PDF file, and then throw away the text.
If you do not know the search terms in advance, life becomes much slower :( There is a program called PDF Search that claims to do full-text search in PDF files. I haven't needed to use it, so I can't say how it is, but it's here: http://www.getpdf.com/.
Hope this helps

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