select longtext column too slow in mysql

Question

I have a table like below,

CREATE TABLE `floor` (
  `id` bigint(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `floorName` varchar(20) NOT NULL,
  `buildingId` bigint(11) NOT NULL,
  `imageInString` longtext,
  `image` longtext,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
  KEY `fk_floor_1_idx` (`buildingId`),
  CONSTRAINT `fk_floor_1` FOREIGN KEY (`buildingId`) REFERENCES `building` (`id`) ON DELETE NO ACTION ON UPDATE NO ACTION
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=20 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

table contains 20 rows. I am inserting images(SVG/JPEG) as base64 in the image column.

when I select different size of inserted column it takes,

4KB -> Loaded less than 1 sec

200KB -> 3 to 4 secs

500KB -> 8 secs

3MB   -> 30 to 50 secs

Here is my dealing, I want to load the 3MB file in 1 to 2 secs.

How can achieve this?

Answer 1

I'm not sure it will be a good idea to store images in MySQL - it's not built to store files, or large files for that matter. To avoid this pattern, I would recommend to store the images on a web server / in the cloud and just store the url / file name in the database, for the application's use.

If you would like to store the images in the database anyway, I would consider the following:

1. Try different data types - what happens if you change the column type to BLOB and save binary information?
2. Check for network connectivity - it's easier to say than do. Therefore, I would start with running your query locally on the MySQL server and not from a different server. That way, you can avoid the network lag and see which part takes longer, transferring the image over the network or uploading it to the database.