Re: A feature request: file attachments

[Chris Travers <..hidden..>]

On Sat, Jul 2, 2011 at 8:51 AM, Hugh Esco <..hidden..> wrote:
> As I approach a point where I handle nearly all of
> my transactions online these days, and spend time
> on every purchase saving a pdf receipt or invoice
> documenting the exchange . . .
>
> I was thinking last night that I would love it if
> (particularly AP transaction and client) objects might
> be related to file uploads.  I would like to see
> our pdf invoices we're paying be attached to the
> AP transaction which documents its payment.

First stage is AR/AP transaction, Sales/vendor invoice,and GL
transaction.  The client object is currently not part of that proposal
but I am open to further discussion.
>
> Perhaps a bank statement could be attached to a
> reconciliation; a contract or customer agreement
> could be attached to a customer record; an invoice
> to an AP transaction.  There are certainly other
> uses for this.

Given the new reconciliation framework this is hardly out of the question.
>
> I've heard from the folks at RT that loading a pg
> database with excessive attachments leads to a
> significant performance hit.  Perhaps these
> attachments could be stored in the file system instead.

This is something which can actually be pretty heavily tuned in
PostgreSQL.  Yeah, there is a performance hit whenever you add
additional tables of this sort and start loading them with a
significant amount of data, however this can be tuned on an as-needed
basis, for example through the use of indexes and altering table
storage defaults for file content.  In general the consensus on the
PostgreSQL community is that the simplification of storing everything
in PostgreSQL outweighs the tuning issues.

However, the current proposal allows other options as well.  If you
want to load the files to a web server through any other means, and
then include a URL to the file, that is supported too.

>
> Does anyone else think it would be useful to drill
> down through the reports in LSMB and find the
> original invoices?

The real issue this initial proposal is designed to solve is to allow
the authoritative invoice that was printed and sent to the customer is
easy to obtain.  See my proposals on -users and -devel for more on my
thinking.

Best Wishes,
Chris Travers