Not seeking for a module. Actually i'm working on a ftp-like file browser and i wonder if the file browsing could be possible by just querying the DB. Drupal DB has the files but not the directories. What i was thinking about is a {directories} table and an additional "directory" field in {files} table in order to get the files per directory. We should also change the file_check_directory() function to make it insert the directories it creates to the DB. With the current file management in drupal a file browser gets files from DB and requires to scan all files and folders by a physical disk access in order to get directories only. A physical disk access plus a DB hit! I cant think of any other way. That's why i think we need a directories table. There is no module solution since core and other modules uses the file_check_directory function(which needs to be modified) to create their directories. And a module implementing this, will require an additional table for the files-folders relation. What do you think? Darrel? On 6/4/07, Vladimir Zlatanov <vlado@dikini.net> wrote:
do you think it would be useful to store directories in DB? is it a core thing or should it be in a contributed module? anybody working on it?
Depends what you are after
The core fileapi doesn't care. All it wants to know is where to put and manipulate your file. Actually it doesn't touch the database at all.
update.mpdule in core does have a single sink directory, so it doesn't care about directory structures in db or the filesystem
There are many modules in contrib which do one way or another. Depends on your needs. There were a lot of debates what is the right way to do it, but it seems there isn't a single solution to satisfy all your needs.
http://drupal.org/project/webfm is one such solution.
I'm working on a different one, with a different focus. http://drupal.org/project/docs
There is a GSOC project focused on this topic.
There are more modules, just check out the file management section in modules
Make your pick.