I hope this is the right place to post this question. The place where I volunteer needs a file system and storage of all their materials. This includes powerpoint, Word, and pdf documents, and possibly more types of files. They want them organized so anyone can find files that are topical to their project. How could I create such a file system? Could I make a local website and have people file and retrieve documents in a Mysql database? Your suggestion?
Thanks,
Matt

I suggest finding a host with a good bandwidth and unlimited space. Then creating a public FTP folder, and allowing people to download files from there. If you know not what FTP is, please google it.

I suggest to make the public Read-Only, so strangers won't go crazy and delete everything.

Could I make a local website and have people file and retrieve documents in a Mysql database

Yes, however storing the files on a HDD and the path in a database is much less resource intensive.

Chris,
I don't understand.

Storing files in a database as BLOBs (Binary Large OBjects) takes a lot of resources to store and retrieve them from the database, and of course you need to output them with the correct MIME-type as the content header otherwise the output will appear corrupted.

There are of course good reasons for using BLOBs the oft-quoted one is security as the actual path to the file is never exposed to the end user. However for a local system this doesn't really apply.

It is simpler store the files on a drive and just have the path in the database as a string which you can then output as a link to the user.
So if your files are stored in a site relative folder called "documents" with sub folders for each filetype.
The table structure would then need;

ID document ID
Name Document Name
Type Document type (pdf, doc, docx, jpg etc)
filename Document filename

plus whatever else you need.

And you can have Users & Groups with access rights to certain files or folders, add categories to the documents and so on and you have the basis of a document management/retrieval system.


Just don't get sued by Xerox

Chris,
I'm having difficulty understanding what your are so ably explaining. But first: Is this the method you would suggest for organizing the files at my people's office?
What do you think is the best method for doing this, regardless of my idea? I should have asked in this way from the start.
Matt

Well it may not be the best, but it's the method we used for when we built a intranet system for a client to keep their contract managers and site foreman up to date with project documents which were often too large to email. By having a single repository of documents and revision database everybody concerned were looking at the same information.
Even some of the more up to date clients could upload documents and alert people to changes with a few minutes.

HI,

I will suggest you to signup with any webhosting provider and host your database with them if you want to use it on net or you can create it at your own system for the local use.