Re: User proposal: File attachments to Orders and AR/AP/GL transactions in 1.3

[Luke <..hidden..>]

On Sat, 2 Jul 2011, Chris Travers wrote:

> On Sat, Jul 2, 2011 at 12:57 PM, Luke <..hidden..> wrote:
>
> > > Additionally considering adding a checkbox to automatically attach an
> > > invoice being emailed or printed.
> >
> > Meaning that the file(s) attached (one checkbox per file) would be
> > included with the email/print job?

Note, that I misunderstood you here.  I thought you were saying that files 
the user attached (which could be Word/Office documents, PDFs, HTML files, 
zip files, or really anything allowed), could be emailed/printed along 
with the order/etc..

What you appear to have actually been saying, per your other message, was 
that the document's PDF version would be attached to itself.
I had never even thought of that, so I didn't read your comment in that 
way.

That invalidates my next statement:

 >> Easy enough for email, but printing might be another matter.
> Why would it be harder for printing?

What I thought you meant, was the attachments could be optionally printed 
with the order.  Those attachments, even just the document ones, could be 
anything, that the print driver may not be able to handle natively.

 >>> The file attachment screen would prompt for input for file type and
> > > name, and would allow the upload of the file.  If the file name is not
> > > provided the file name of the upload would be used.
> >
> > It should auto determine type.  One of the libraries, or even the "file"
> > command, or fallback to extension.
> > (Assuming that's what you mean by type [MIME type].)
>
> Thinking about this.

I hate to keep talking about Drupal, but the way the filefield CCK module 
handles files is applicable here, and you might want to look into it.
I have never had to choose file type manually in any virtual filesystem 
application I have ever used (document manager, or otherwise).  The chance 
for user error here is quite large--why should we trust the user's opinion 
of the file type?  What cause could we possibly have for believing that 
will be accurate?

Actually, from a UI standpoint, everything about the CCK filefield module 
is potentially useful, both in uploading/attaching, and in presentation 
after the fact.

I'll be happy to spin a test installation if you have some interest in 
examining it.

Luke