Managing huge amounts of documents

[Thurrock]

Hi Everyone,

 

I have a question and it may have been asked before but I would like your view on this, I am making an application that needs to store documents, it needs to be scale-able in that it could reach over a million documents very quickly. the documents consist of pdf files for the best part but will include word documents and excel documents. 

 

I need to make the documents searchable and easily accessible, the question is: file system or database storage?

 

There may be the need to enable document editing later and this leads me to think database as I can easily insert revisions ect but then again I think file system as it would be easier to backup.

 

concerns are security as each doc may need permissions so folders could be tricky to secure as directory structure can be exposed, I guess i am torn between the two ways of doing things and would like other peoples views.

 

Thanks in advance

[ankur0101]

 

 

I need to make the documents searchable and easily accessible, the question is: file system or database storage?

I think you may use Amazon S3 API. Its better not to store so much documents in a database, instead, you may store file names in tables which will make it easier while searching.

 

 

 

There may be the need to enable document editing later and this leads me to think database as I can easily insert revisions ect but then again I think file system as it would be easier to backup.

For this purpose, you may use PHP libraries what will allow you to edit files online, you need to google for that.

 

Instead of all, why not to use Google Doc ?