What is the best way to upload and store pictures on the site?

Question

I have no idea how the big websites save the pictures on their servers. Could any one tell me how do they save the pictures that are uploaded by the users in their database?

Answer 1

It is usually a bad idea to store images in your database (if your site is popular). Database is, traditionally, one of main bottlenecks in most any application out there. No need to load it more than necessary. If images are in the filesystem, many http servers (nginx, for example) will serve them most efficiently.

The biggest social network in Russia, Vkontakte does exactly this: store images in the filesystem.

Another big social network implemented a sophisticated scalable blob storage. But it's not available to the public, AFAIK.

Summary of this answer: don't store blobs in the database.