What is a Blob storage provider

Blob storage providers allow you to abstract the storage location of media files (videos, images, documents). The media files can be stored on the file system or the database. The media items metadata (titles, urls, tags, categories) is not affected by the storage location of the media files (blobs) and is kept in LibrariesDataProvider - Sitefinity CMS database. The metadata includes also the thumbnails of images and videos.

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.

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:\myimagesand 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.