Document Stores - Need advice

[aholtzapfel]

I'm upgrading a solution from FM 8.5 to FM 14 and moving the server from our LAN to a Hosting Company (we will have a stand alone server). 

One of my tables has a folder associated with it to hold documents. (See Attached File, uses a webviewer to display the documents folder and send event to create it.)

This has worked well for me for years and will continue to work IF I want to leave these files on our LAN. (Why I posted example file, someone may find it useful.)  I do not really want to leave these on the LAN. I want to move these "into the cloud" and need advice for the best way to do this.  I have considered using container fields for these documents (and maybe I will) although it seems to be overkill for what I really need. I have also considered using php and a webviewer to create/display/upload documents to these folders.

Is there another solution I should look at?  Should I avoid containers? (Have found them buggy, unreliable, and hard to maintain in the past but have not revisited them in a few years) 

Thank you in advance for any thoughts on this matter,

Allen

DocumentStore.fmp12

Edited May 13, 2015 by aholtzapfel
minor format issue

[Kris M]

Containers are the way to go.

You'll see improvements if you've not worked with them in a while.

[Ocean West]

What is the the total size of your containers or file you are importing. You may review the pricing with you hosting provider as you will need adequate storage space for the content plus backups plus bandwidth for initial upload of gigabytes of documents.

Containers are much improved - but there is always SuperContainer as an option if your host allows it or if you are co-locating your server, at a data center.

[Fitch]

Since you said you'd have a stand-alone server at the hosting company, I'd assume storage space won't be an issue. 

Give the native external container storage a try. 

http://help.filemaker.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10244/~/storing-container-field-data-externally

[JerrySalem]

Are the documents stored in your database all PDF's or are some Word/Excel etc?

For PDF's External containers are the way to go.  For Other types of documents, you will have to build something to download and view them.  But overall, it is way easier to do that in FM12, 13, 14 than using a web viewer.

Also the attachment doesn't work, I think you need to zip the file before attaching to your post

 

Jerry

Edited May 15, 2015 by JerrySalem