ARK2/Files

File Management

File and Media management have seen major changes in ARK2, with a more flexible system implemented.

• Files are now a core Module instead of a dataclass and look-up table, allowing for flexible metadata based on file type, and using files as either data properties or relationships.
• The file system is abstracted using FlySystem allowing files to be transparently saved locally or to cloud providers.
• File versioning is supported.
• Image management uses Imagine.
• Thumbnails are stored separately from the master files to make backups, archiving, and regeneration easier
• Multiple thumbnail profiles can be configured
• Thumbnails will be generated asynchronously

The Media Types and File Types supported are configurable, with standard types provided by default:

• Image (jpg, png, etc)
• Audio (mp3, etc)
• Video (mkv, etc)
• Text (txt, etc)
• Document / Application (pdf, odt, ods, etc)
• Spatial?
• Other

In multi-tenant mode, the files for each ARK instance are stored separately under the 'sites' folder, e.g. 'sites/mysite/files'.

The directory structure for each instance is as follows:

- files
  |- download
  |- upload
  |- tmp
  |- data
     |- <mediatype>
        |- <tokens>
  |- thumbs
     |- <profile>
        |- <mediatype>
            |- <tokens>

where the <mediattype> is as defined in the configuration, and the <token> is a configurable token to split the folders into manageable sizes. By default the <token> will be split by file id in groups of 1000, so subfolders for 0, 1000, 2000, 3000, etc.

The individual file names will be in a standard format. Flysystem abstracts folders and file names as a relative path, which will take the form:

files/data/<mediatype>/<token>/<id>.<revision>.<suffix>
files/thumbs/<profile>/<mediatype>/<token>/<id>.<revision>.<suffix>

There will be no direct file or image links, all files are considered private and requests to the mapped URL will be security checked. The mapped URL forms will be:

files/<id>/<name>
files/<id>/<basename>_<profile>.<suffix>

Design Work

File Manage needs to be flexible and fast.

• File attachments to data items
• Data downloads / exports
• Documentation
• Temp files
• Mapping files
• Image management, generated thumbnails, etc
• Metadata, mimetypes, etc
• Cloud storage
• Efficiency
• Security

Problems with current setup:

• All files in one directory, can be slow for large volumes
• Thumbnails in same directory, slows performance, harder to maintain
• No versioning
• No expiry

Full document management and versioning workflow is a stretch goal needed for Avalon. Try use CMIS standard as used in LibreOffice.

• https://www.alfresco.com/cmis
• https://packagist.org/packages/dkd/php-cmis

Need to plan for moving to advanced model while keeping simple for first release.

• Files are a system module, with modtype for core file type and attributes as required
• Required module properties for title and description, all else optional, some core fields replicated on item table to performance
• Use FlySystem for file system abstraction, extend to allow subpaths to be transparently mounted on.
• Use Imagine for image handling
• Split files into subdirs with max number of files per dir
• Thumbnails into separate dir, managed by image code (on-the-fly creation, etc)
• Support versioning
• Support expiry date for tmp files
• Support mimetypes + core types (image, video, audio, document, text)

Very similar to http://documentation.concrete5.org/developers/working-with-files-and-the-file-manager/overview