More powerful attachment management?

[mikovchain]

I found there is no much improvement in the attachment management system of phpBB3. Once it was a MOD of phpBB2 and then immigrated to phpBB3.
I have to considered it because the forum may be used for a large scale of visitors.
If there are millions of attached files, it is not a good idea putting them all in one folder.
So it is my question:

Will the dev team consider such a new feature, that phpbb will arrange the attached files in different folders according their date?
If there are any existing MOD for this, please tell me the links. ( phpbb2 or phpbb3 )


Thanks!

[matthewf]

my only problem with the attachment feature in phpbb3 is that there is no means of globally tracking all the attachments, while you can see what a user has, if people make use of this, even if they are small attachments, then if buried amongst other posts and topics, then it will be an impossible task to find all the attachments, it is strange, that this feature was never implemented, as I not sure how would admin be able to keep the global upload limit in check?

but to asnwer your question, I don't think it really matters, as when you upload a file, you don't see the file as its name once uploaded but as numbers, so it would be impossible to know which file belongs with which user anyway

[Highway of Life]

Matthew, I either don’t understand what you are saying...
or I’m not sure you understand how the attachment feature works.
Everything is stored in the database, and it keeps track of what topic it’s posted in, what user posted it.
The physical file name, and the actual filename (non-hashed), as well as a host of other stats regarding each attachment.

This information can be called at any time to see what user posted what, It’s also what is used when you go to your UCP > Manage Attachments, as well as the ACP > Orphan Attachments.
So it is actually possible to see what user posted what attachment, and it’s exact location.

[Handyman]

my only problem with the attachment feature in phpbb3 is that there is no means of globally tracking all the attachments, while you can see what a user has, if people make use of this, even if they are small attachments, then if buried amongst other posts and topics, then it will be an impossible task to find all the attachments, it is strange, that this feature was never implemented, as I not sure how would admin be able to keep the global upload limit in check?

but to asnwer your question, I don't think it really matters, as when you upload a file, you don't see the file as its name once uploaded but as numbers, so it would be impossible to know which file belongs with which user anyway

Also, the filename starts with the user_id of the user who uploaded it… so if you view your files by ftp or other means, you can see who uploaded what.

The only thing I miss about the phpBB3 version that was in the phpBB2 mod is the "Upgrade" attachment… where you could upload a new version but keep the download count.

[matthewf]

the UCP only tracks what you upload (only one users uploaded attachments), if Im a admin and want to see what some one has uploaded, from a lot of users, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to do this, you can see what a user has uploaded using manage user, but that is one at a time, as for Orphan Attachments, that only tracks attachments that aren't attached to any post

so what Im asking is, how as an admin able to see EVERYONES attachments that have been uploaded to the board? in phpbb2 attachment mod, you can easy do this, as there was an option to globally allow admin to see and delete all attachments, in phpbb3, there doesn't seem a feature like that,

and not all admin with have access to the database or have FTP access to the board

[Handyman]

the UCP only tracks what you upload (only one users uploaded attachments), if Im a admin and want to see what some one has uploaded, from a lot of users, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to do this, you can see what a user has uploaded using manage user, but that is one at a time, as for Orphan Attachments, that only tracks attachments that aren't attached to any post

so what Im asking is, how as an admin able to see EVERYONES attachments that have been uploaded to the board? in phpbb2 attachment mod, you can easy do this, as there was an option to globally allow admin to see and delete all attachments, in phpbb3, there doesn't seem a feature like that,

and not all admin with have access to the database or have FTP access to the board

Ok, I misunderstood what you said the first time.
I think that would be a must have with the attachment mod.

I'm surprised they didn't include all the features of the mod.
Though they have made improvements in a few areas.

[mikovchain]

Hi all,
Nobody answered my question... maybe one of you know where is the MOD I need.
I want the uploaded files being stored in different folders by date. It is a popular feature of current forum programs.

I had planned making it myself, but after looking into the code I found it would be too large a project for me.

[Handyman]

Hi all,
Nobody answered my question... maybe one of you know where is the MOD I need.
I want the uploaded files being stored in different folders by date. It is a popular feature of current forum programs.

I had planned making it myself, but after looking into the code I found it would be too large a project for me.

I didn't realize you were still asking for it… phpbb doesn't support mods at the moment since they don't want users running boards live
The mod you are looking for has not even been requested until now, so it hasn't been created.
I think it's a nifty idea though… It should probably be released as part of an attachment expansion mod, since I have heard many things that have been requested for the attachment system.

I'm not sure if phpBB plans to expand the bb3 attachment system any more than it is, so I'm assuming a mod is needed.

[mikovchain]

Yup I know there are too many requests for dev team.
This feature is requested by some of the Chinese phpBB2 users, and I think it would be a common problem for a forum which has been running for more than 3 years and has topics more than 100,000.

Have you met such problems? I don't know whether it will break the file system or not when there is a large number of attached files in ./files folder. When the number exceeds 100,000, I can hardly browse the folder in ftp client and backup the recent files. And I think it would reduce the efficiency of attachment management system.

I have studied some other forum programs, most of them solves this problem by sorting files in different folders named by time.

I think this feature is needed when the forum grows large. I suggest the dev team adding this feature in future plan.

[Handyman]

Yup I know there are too many requests for dev team.
This feature is requested by some of the Chinese phpBB2 users, and I think it would be a common problem for a forum which has been running for more than 3 years and has topics more than 100,000.

Have you met such problems? I don't know whether it will break the file system or not when there is a large number of attached files in ./files folder. When the number exceeds 100,000, I can hardly browse the folder in ftp client and backup the recent files. And I think it would reduce the efficiency of attachment management system.

I have studied some other forum programs, most of them solves this problem by sorting files in different folders named by time.

I think this feature is needed when the forum grows large. I suggest the dev team adding this feature in future plan.

It can certainly be done and it wouldn't be too difficult since they will be sorted by date.
I wouldn't break the system if it's done right, but some core code would have to be modified.