Update PDF using SqlFileStream

[mleonard]

I'm having trouble understanding how to update a PDF file in a FileTable using SqlFileStream and am hoping someone here can help. I think I just need an overview of how this is accomplished.

In my forms application I'm retrieving the PDF with READ access and displaying it in a PDF control through/using MemoryStream.

After adding some annotations to the PDF file I want to save/update the PDF file, and this is where I get lost. Since the PDF file has been opened with READ access I'm guessing I'd have to open another stream with WRITE access but I don't know how this is done. Basically, I'd like to overwrite an existing PDF file in the database.

Thank you for any help/guidance,
Matt

[Reverend Jim]

You don't need to use SqlFileStream to store a PDF (or any binary file) into a database. See the example here

[Matt_3]

Thanks for the information. That's good to know.

Does this approach make updating an existing file in the database easier?

[Reverend Jim]

I tried this in my SQL Management console query window and it worked.

UPDATE PDFStore
   SET Contents = (SELECT  * FROM OPENROWSET(BULK 'D:\test.pdf', SINGLE_BLOB) SOMEALIAS)
WHERE FileName = 'D:\test.pdf'

[Matt_3]

I see in your example that you're working from the file system.

I'm still wrapping my arms around saving/updating files in a database, so pardon my ignorance, but does this assume that the file has first been saved to the file system (from the database)?

Or is your example with FileTables in mind?

[Reverend Jim]

I don't understand what you mean by FileTables. I know what a file is, and what a table is, but not a FileTable. Yes, my example requires the PDF to be in a file, however, it may be possible to create that file in memory rather than to disk. I'm not particularly interested in researching this so feel free, however, in the absence of a memory-based file you could always use the %TEMP% folder for such an operation.

[Matt_3]

Thanks for your clarification and help.

If you're interested, FileTable is a new feature in SQL 2012:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff929144.aspx

[Reverend Jim]

I'll check it out. Thanks for the link.