Writing a Files Storage Provider

Modified on Sun, 14 Feb 2010 12:40 by Dario Solera Categorized as Development, dotNET Development, Plugins and Providers
{s:Complete}

In this short article we are going to learn how to write a simple Files Storage Provider for ScrewTurn Wiki 3.0 (STW from now on). A Files Storage Provider is a type of plugin that handles files-related data such as uploaded files/directories and page attachments

==Introduction to Files Storage Providers==
This brief section assumes you have already a [ProvidersIntro|general knowledge] on STW providers.

The main task a Files Storage Provider performs is handling the following data on behalf of the wiki application:

* upload directories
* upload files
* page attachments.

'''Note''': in case of ''read-only'' data ({{ReadOnly}} property returning {{true}}) the wiki application should never call methods that are intended for altering data. However, such methods that return collections should return empty collections instead of {{null}}. Methods that return single elements should return {{null}} instead.

All paths are specified in a UNIX-like format, for example {{/path/to/file.txt}}, but all paths are ''case-insensitive''. All paths must start with a slash, and all directory paths must end with a slash too.

((('''Important note''': all providers should be totally '''thread-safe'''.)))

==Directories Management==
The following methods are called by the wiki application to manage directories:

* {{ListDirectories}} lists directories inside the specified directory
* {{CreateDirectory}} creates a directory inside the specified directory
* {{DeleteDirectory}} deletes a directory and all data inside it (files and sub-directories)
* {{RenameDirectory}} renames a directory.

==Files Management==
The following methods are called by the wiki application to manage files:

* {{ListFiles}} lists files inside the specified directory
* {{StoreFile}} stores a file inside the specified directory, reading from a source {{Stream}} and optionally counting the download
* {{RetrieveFile}} retrieves a file, writing into a destination {{Stream}}
* {{GetFileDetails}} returns an instance of {{FileDetails}} (or {{null}} if the file does not exist) containing information about the file (such as the size and number of downloads)
* {{SetFileRetrievalCount}} sets the number of times a file has been downloaded
* {{DeleteFile}} deletes a file and its download count
* {{RenameFile}} renames a file, preserving its download count.

==Page Attachment Management==
The following methods are called by the wiki application to manage page attachments:

* {{GetPagesWithAttachments}} lists the names of the pages that have at least one attachment
* {{ListPageAttachments}} lists the attachments a page has
* {{StorePageAttachment}} stores an attachment for the specified page, reading from a source {{Stream}}
* {{RetrievePageAttachment}} retrieves an attachment for the specified page, writing to a destination {{Stream}} and optionally counting the download
* {{GetPageAttachmentDetails}} returns an instance of {{FileDetails}} (or {{null}} if the attachment does not exist}} containing information about the attachment (such as the size and number of downloads)
* {{SetPageAttachmentRetrievalCount}} sets the number of time an attachment has been downloaded
* {{DeletePageAttachment}} deletes a page attachment and its download count
* {{RenamePageAttachment}} renames a page attachment, preserving its download count
* {{NotifyPageRenaming}} is called when a page is renamed (the provider should use this information to preserve the attachments data as well as their download count).
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Writing a Files Storage Provider

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