[CS-Project-devel] Request For Ideas: File Uploads

[Dan F. <cra...@us...>]

While working on designs for CS-Project v2.0, I realized it would be very
nice to put these designs up on the project manager.  This of course,
requires the capability to upload files into the system; I would like to add
this feature into the 1.2.x release, so we can use CS-Project to handle
design discussions and such.

Uploading files is pretty easy, and a very, very miniscule part of the whole
system.  I've thought of a couple of different ways to handle the storage of
uploaded files, and I would like your thoughts on them:

   1. Store in the "rw" folder
      - must always check for its existence
      - case sensitivity could become an issue (consider using an arbitrary
      ID from database as filename)
      - database could easily reference a non-existent file
      2. Store as an encoded blob in a new table within the database
      - guaranteed to be available (the record indicating existence would
      contain the blob)
      - case sensitivity not an issue
      - decoding the file for download may cause issues (?)

I would also like to have the system setup to handle thumbnails of the file
where applicable (for image files), and have them appear within the post
they were uploaded in.  This leads to another question: how to display the
uploaded file?

   1. Using notes/comments
      - this covers issues & projects, but not tasks...
         - remove "record_id" link from note_table
         - create note_linker table (name to be determined)
         - using a generic "type" column in afore-mentioned "note_linker"
         table, link issues, projects, or tasks to a note
      - special table could generically link tasks/projects/issues to files
      (file_table?)
      - only notes code would have to be updated to deal with displaying
      files.
      2. special facility for notes, tasks, issues, and projects
      - similar to using notes/comments, but it could be linked anywhere
      - code for notes, tasks, issues, AND projects would have to be updated
      to deal with displaying files
      - a project could link to a file, and so could a note (redundant?)


I think one good thing to do would be to make notes a bit more generic: this
system should be able to handle task comments as well, thus removing an
unnecessary (and redundant) table from the mix.  Let me know your thoughts
as soon as possible: I'd like to get something worked out so I can test it
out on the project site (http://project.crazedsanity.com) and get your input
on designs for 2.0!
-- 
Best Regards,


Dan Falconer
http://CrazedSanity.com || http://www.Buzzkill.org