Store Types

You can change the file system (the store) that the Documents and Media library uses to store files. This is configured in the portal-ext.properties file by setting the dl.store.impl=property. Configuring stores is covered in the Document Repository Configuration guide. Here, you’ll consider the ramifications of different stores:

Simple File System Store: Uses the file system (local or a mounted share) to store files. This is the default store.

Advanced File System Store: Nests files into directories by version, for faster performance and to store more files.

DBStore (Database Storage): Stores files in the Liferay DXP database. The file (stored as a blob) size limit is 1 GB. Use the Simple File System Store or Advanced File System Store to store larger files.

S3Store (Amazon Simple Storage): Uses Amazon’s cloud-based storage solution.

If you must move your files from one store to another, use the migration utility in Control Panel → Configuration → Server Administration → Data Migration.

Simple File System Store

The Simple File System Store is the default store. It stores Documents and Media files on the server’s file system (local or mounted). This store is heavily bound to Liferay DXP’s database. The store’s default root folder is [Liferay Home]/data/document_library. You can change this via the dl.store.file.system.root.dir= property in a portal-ext.properties file, or in the Control Panel. For instructions on this, see the Document Repository Configuration guide.

The Simple File System Store uses a local folder to store files. You can use the file system for your clustered configuration, but you must make sure the folder you point the store at can handle things like concurrent requests and file locking. You must therefore use a Storage Area Network or a clustered file system.

The Simple File System Store creates a folder structure based on primary keys in Liferay DXP’s database. If, for example, you upload a presentation with the file name workflow.odp to a folder named stuff, the store creates a folder structure like this:

/companyId/folderId/numericFileEntryName/versionNumber

companyId: The site’s company ID.

folderId: The ID of the Documents and Media folder containing the document.

numericFileEntryName: The document’s numeric file entry name.

versionNumber: The document’s version number.

Figure 1: The Simple File System Store creates a folder structure based on primary keys in Liferay DXP's database.

Note: Be careful not to confuse a document’s numeric file entry name from its document ID. Each has an independent counter. The numeric file entry name is used in the folder path for storing the document, but the document ID is not. The numeric file entry name can be found in the name column of the DLFileEntry table in Liferay DXP’s database; the document ID can be found in the fileEntryId column of the same table.

Using the Advanced File System Store

The Advanced File System Store, like the Simple File System Store, saves files to the local file system. It uses a slightly different folder structure, however, and can overcome operating system limitations on the number of files stored in a particular folder by programmatically creating a structure that can expand to millions of files. It alphabetically nests the files in folders. This also improves performance, as there are fewer files stored per folder.

Figure 2: The Advanced File System Store creates a more nested folder structure than the Simple File System Store.

The same rules apply to the Advanced File System Store as apply to the Simple File System Store. To cluster it, you must point the store to a network mounted file system that all the nodes can access. That networked file system must also support concurrent requests and file locking. Otherwise, you may experience data corruption issues if two users attempt to write to the same file at the same time from two different nodes.

See the Document Repository Configuration guide for instructions on using the Advanced File System Store.

Using Amazon Simple Storage Service

Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) is a cloud-based storage solution that you can use with Liferay DXP. It lets you store your documents to the cloud seamlessly from all nodes.

When you sign up for the service, Amazon assigns you unique keys that link you to your account. In Amazon’s interface, you can create buckets of data optimized by region. Once you create these to your specifications, follow these instructions to connect your repository to Liferay DXP.

Consult Amazon’s S3 documentation for more information.