Hello all

I have a question for any other gurus out their.

I have a client that runs a mail marketing company. Anyway they have printer customers which need a way to login to a secure screen upload their files (i.e. mailing lists, images, etc) and they want it so the customer can login and only see their uploaded files instead of just giving them a ftp login and let them actually ftp to their server. Anyway these files range from like 10mb all the way to 1gig in size.

SO THE QUESTION:
Should I create a login type system that will then let the customer upload a file and store it in the dbase or should I just make a script that uploads to a folder and store the file path in the dbase.
Which way would be best (talking speed here) I would not want the customer sitting at a screen that will take a min to load etc. so speed wise and server resource wise which is best to do when storing large file size files. sotre them in dbase with the clients other info or just store the files path in the clients table?

thanks all for your replies

Do not store the files in the database. Store them on the filesystem, and store references in the database.

Speed is relative. If the client is on a slow connection, the fastest server in the world will not do much good. Storing and retrieving files off of the filesystem reduces the overhead of doing database queries, so -- practically speaking -- it would be faster.

What you would want to concentrate on is the interface response time. Even if the server is slow, if the client sees some activity (like a loading bar -- I'm not talking of flash here) then it makes all the difference in the world.

Also, you will run into problems with 1 gb files if you are trying to upload them via a browser. Most web servers limit the amount of data that can be sent with a request. You might want to investigate this issue further.

What is the problem with FTP? Seems like an ideal solution here. The only thing that you would have to deal with are the user accounts (their permissions, quotas, etc.) Then, all you write is a script that is an interface to the FTP directory.

Hello,

thanks for your reply. The client wants something that has more eye candy and features in it then a typical ftp program so basiclly I was getting some information before I build them a new file storage system weather it be a fancy ftp system or a dbase file storage system. Since the ftp program has to be tied into a email system and other features.

So have any advice when I start to build a system that will allow clients once logged into their secure area to upload a file as far as speed and efficiantcy is concerned. The only ftp feature clients will be able to do is upload. On the admin side or employee side the staff can delete or download the file. Those are the only ftp type features we are talking here.

Thanks for your comments/suggestions