Storage providers for libraries
Using storage providers for libraries, allows you to store images, videos, documents and other files in various locations and manage them through Sitefinity CMS Libraries module. By default, the Libraries module stores all media content in the Sitefinity CMS database. This is useful, as it provides simplicity for maintenance purposes, as no additional configuration or storage cost is included. In cases when you need to store big chunk of data, and you are concerned about your database size growing, you can configure Sitefinity CMS to keep the binary data, known as BLOB (Binary Large Object) in an external (for instance cloud) storage. The media content metadata (Title, Description, Url, Thumbnails, and so on) is not affected by the storage location of the media files (blobs) and is always managed by the LibrariesDataProvider which stores it in the Sitefinity CMS database. Sitefinity CMS creates reference links between the meatadata and the binary data from the external storage.
NOTE: When using external storage providers for your media content it is recommended to take a snapshot of your external, storage every time you do a database backup. This way, if you need to restore to that database backup you ensure that all media content references match between the database and the external storage.
Blob storage types
Blob storage type (BST) represents the implementation of the blob storage – registered with friendly name and visual wizard for settings. Types are FileSystem and Database.
The blob storage type is registered in the Sitefinity CMS configuration - the BlobStorage element in LibrariesConfig.
Blob storage provider instances
The blob storage provider instance is an instance of a blob storage type. You can have more than one instance of BST. For example, you can have 2 FileSystem providers - one pointing to c:\myimages and another pointing to \\networkserver\images-share. You can have the same BST registered multiple times with different settings.
Blob storage provider is assigned when creating a new library. All the media items that are uploaded in this library are stored into the storage location specified in the BSP settings. This is the same for all media content – images, videos, documents. You can have a library with videos and a library with images using the same BSP. For example, if they use FileSystem BSP their files will be stored into the same folder. You can have 2 libraries in Images using different storage locations – for example image library Flowers is kept in the database and library Trees is kept on the file system.
When you create a new library, the default blob storage provider is associated with it. You can change it from Basic settings. You can delete a blob storage provider only if it is not used in a library.