Document Storage

4xjbh

I have always read that when storing/registering documents like excel, cadfiles etc, into a database a link/reference to the filesystem is preferable rather than storing the document in the database.

Is this the case with Aware IM (AIM)? My understanging from the user guide indicates AIM stores all in the database.....am I mistaken?

When creating a Document Register Application which deals with files of a large filesize would it be preferable to key in the details of the document, select the document and then have the file moved to a database file store folder, assign a unique name based unique values from time/date....etc info. and provide a link to view.

Thanks

aware_support

Documents uploaded as values of attributes of the Document type are indeed stored in the database. Whether or not it makes sense depends on a particular application. On the one hand you can save some disk space by storing documents as files outside the database, on the other hand the database provides better data integrity and data access control - it is not easy to change a document stored in the database without using the application, whereas it is very easy to change a file in the file system.

Aware IM does not prevent you from storing a document in the file system outside the database. For example, in a document management system you could define a business object called Document with the attributes, such as unique name of the document, type etc. One of the attributes could be path in the file system where the document file is stored. This Path attribute could be just Plain Text.