Full-Resolution Photo Storage Strategy w/Cloudant?

[Kurtois]

I want to save full-resolution photos in my TFv5 database.

I planned to use Cloudant for my database.

Questions:

1.
Is possible to store full-resolution photos externally, easily, in order to minimize storage “cost” on Cloudant servers?

2.
Is there any solution to keeping cost low, but maintaining ability to store full-resolution photos in TFv5 database?

[Brendan]

Hi Kurtois,

Unfortunately with the IBM Cloud system, they limit the request size right now to 1 MB. That means that attachments and the data in your record combined, cannot exceed 1 MB. So pretty much right now, unless I can somehow get IBM to change their minds and increase the request limit (they are thinking about it), then I would suggest using another sync mechanism. There are options. One of them is to use iCloud. Another is to use Nearby sync, and another is to setup your own Apache CouchDB server. Also, Apache CouchDB doesn’t have to be run on a server in your own network, although it can. You can subscribe to Amazon Web Services and set one up there so you could effectively have your own private Cloudant. But you’d need someone to help you set that up. And Amazon charges for it of course.

[Brendan]

There’s also one other strategy, but it works only on the Mac version. That’s to store your images in a File Attachment field using the Add Alias function. That’s the button that looks like a + with an arrow next to it. You could sync the data that way with Cloudant, but the images wouldn’t sync. They would stay in their original locations on that one Mac.

[Kurtois]

In asking these questions, I realize I am moving outside of the scope of what could be considered typical TapForms support. With that in mind, I would ask that you would consider providing stepping stones for me to learn on my own on how to achieve the task at hand. I would also be open to the idea of nominal consulting fees, if that seems appropriate. In this same breath, I would think other TapForms users could benefit from this information. So, perhaps it may be within scope of TapForms, but for advanced users?

Disclaimer:
If you foresee this venture getting into something along the lines of over $40-50/month, I do not think I could handle that monetary cost.

With the above idea in mind, I am wondering if you would be willing to start me down a path of some general steps on setting up server on Amazon Web Services with an Apache CouchDB instance.

[Brendan]

Hi Kurt,

Sorry it took me so long to reply.

I don’t actually have much experience with Amazon Web Services myself. I did attempt to setup a server once with it, but I didn’t get it working and it cost me $13 or so just to get that far, so I abandoned it. That’s when I found Cloudant.

I have no idea what the monthly cost of AWS would be.

But doing a bit of Googling could help you find out how to do it:

https://gist.github.com/Ravenstine/fb350f5af391aee641d024a74a087b8e

Or this:

https://hackernoon.com/running-a-couchdb-2-0-cluster-in-production-on-aws-with-docker-50f745d4bdbc

But I do have instructions for installing Apache CouchDB on your own Mac server. That’s in the online user manual here:

https://www.tapforms.com/help-mac/5/en/topic/couchdb-sync

Thanks,

Brendan

[Kurtois]

Brendan,

Thank you very much for the reply.

Unfortunately, as much as I would like to take on the project of AWS + ApacheCouchDB + Tap Forms, I think I must choose one of the other options you already provide in TFv5.

A thought did come to mind. And please forgive my lack of knowledge of TF, but would it be possible to use a URL for an image that would be rendered within TF?

All,

On this same point, would there be a cloud service to store photos that is inexpensive and offers a shareable URL to the photo that folks would recommend?

[Brendan]

Sorry Kurt, I didn’t see your response to my response.

No, Tap Forms can’t use a URL for the Photo field. Although that would be a good feature to have and would help to solve the problem with Cloudant attachments. But it would also require you to have an active Internet connection in order to be able to view your photos within Tap Forms. Right now with the way it works, Tap Forms has a copy of the photos on each device and those get synced when a network connection becomes available.

Dropbox can be used to get a URL to a photo. There’s also Flickr.com.

Thanks,

Brendan

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