attachment upload path
-Anti- - May 20, 2009 - 09:07
Can anyone reassure me that I don't need the upload path module?
I just can't envisage handling 500+ documents & media files which are all in the same directory (sites/default/files). My intuition says to use the upload path module to put them into separate directories; that this will make them easier to manage. At the same time, I see 'upload path' only has a thousand users, and it creates some issues/problems of its own.
Are drupal attachments relatively easy to manage when all placed in the files directory?
At what amount do they start to become unwieldy?
Thanks.
Filefield paths?
HI -Anti-,
I too find the need to organize the files folder. For this I am at the moment using filefield_paths with pathauto to create subfolders by date/user.
I'm still at early testing stage, but everything seems to work properly: in my case images and videos are moved to their own folders within user specific subfolders.
I am also planning to test out http://drupal.org/project/uploadedfilesmover
Cheers
I haven't started actually
I haven't started actually using the upload/attachment feature yet, so I have no idea how these files are actually managed, or what advantages having separate directory paths would bring.
What are the main problems that you have encountered with having all the attachments put into the /files directory?
Which specific operation(s) do you find difficult?
Here are a couple of examples of the type of operation I might need to do:
1)
Suppose I needed to annually update (replace) 50 pdf documents attached by several different users to nodes of different content types. Would I need to go to each individual node, delete the old and upload the new through the upload module? Or would I simply use ftp to drag all the new versions into the /files directory, overwriting the old?
2)
What if I needed to list all the attachments that a specific user has uploaded to different nodes, and do a bulk operation with them, like delete a selection of them, or move/copy some of them to one node so they are collated together?
3)
Imagine the server is running out of space, so I want to delete all attachments over two years old. I go to ftp and delete files simply by the date they were created/updated. What happens to the attachment lists on the nodes? Do these deleted files disappear from the lists, or do they still list and throw a 404 if clicked?
Are these normal, everyday operations for drupal web maintainers?
Does the core upload module handle this kind of file management quite well?
Does using upload paths make any difference whatsoever to file management?
Would the views bulk operation module (http://drupal.org/project/views_bulk_operations) be more helpful for managing attachments than the various upload path modules?
Thanks to anyone for any advice.
Well, at the moment I need to
Well, at the moment I need to categorize the files folder into subdirectories for:
1)allowing different roles/users to access only a specific set of files
2)allow users to find and attach the same file to different nodes without the need to re-upload
3)ease to browse the files folder and finding quickly what admins or users may need
4)list the content of a specific subfolder within a node using the filebrowser module.
5) having all videos in the videos folder, documents in docs folder, and so on
Concerning the examples you mention, I did not actually deal with something similar (yet) but I *think* most of them are feasible:
1) I suppose that if you use ftp to overwrite the 50 pdf files with newer versions with the same name there should be no problem
for 2) I think it'd be quite easy to view (and delete?) a specific subset of files, but performing operations like move or copy files from one location to the other looks a bit more complicate. filefield_paths has the "retroactive update" feature, although risky.
3) This is an important issue, IMHO. I think that in most cases the deleted files would just disappear from listings and nodes, but I am not sure...
For such operations I'd also consider http://drupal.org/project/webdav, it seems very promising.
Sorry I cannot be more specific, I did not try this stuff yet. hope this may help you a little anyway.
Cheers