[cdella]

It has been established that data can be manipulated in order to fit into a database. I am a student currently working on the concept of this scenario in vice versa where the database can modify itself in order to fit the data. for example if we look at a database from a physical perspective we can say that the database is a container of data, similar to a glass of water.Think of how you pour water accordingly to fit a glass however this glass is required to adjust its own size i.e shrink or expand according to the volume of water being poured in. one purpose for this is to show how one database can be used to store different quality video streams online and on various devices as opposed to setting up a new database for each version of the same video. i was wondering if any one had any light to shed on this concept.

[Dormilich]

cdella, on 09 February 2013 - 11:20 PM, said:

one purpose for this is to show how one database can be used to store different quality video streams online and on various devices as opposed to setting up a new database for each version of the same video.

I don’t understand that one. why would there be a need to use a new DB for each version of video?

[cdella]

well for example a site like bbc iplayer which can stream the same video in different qualities dependant on your pc's competence. there is usually a different database for each version of this particular video

[Dormilich]

cdella, on 09 February 2013 - 11:33 PM, said:

there is usually a different database for each version of this particular video

is there? how inconvenient. I’d assume some CDN type of DB wouldn’t need that. wonder why they would go against NFs there.

[cdella]

well i may be incorrect as i was told this by my supervisor, however i have researched this concept of a dynamic database which adjusts its size according to the data and i havent had any success so far. i was wondering if anyone has heard of this concept before and has any ideas of how to go about implementing it.

[Dormilich]

the only thing about sizes in a DB I know of is that the DB itself is only limited hardware-wise and datatype-wise. though BLOBs are more like a bucket you can put glasses of water in (i.e. usually large enough for any video).

[cdella]

This is what i myself understand however for my dissertation i have been told to develop a database and imagine that the database would function like a one size fits all hat i.e would expand or shrink depending on what data is in inserted. and think about it the bucket would have a limit to what goes in. in this case the bucket has no limit and can adjust itself to fit any device. i.e regardless of the hardware limitations.

[Dormilich]

I would imagine that the one-size-fits-it-all approach would require some intense CPU-load on a RDBMS to keep up indexing and such. maybe you should check out NoSQL systems. they seems to already do something like that you want.

[cdella]

much appreciated im gonna look up nosql and get back to you if possible