Content stores overview

A content store (ContentStore) or combinations of content stores can be used to control how and where the binary files are physically stored. Binary streams can be stored across a range of locations and can be encrypted/decrypted, as necessary. Also, fast versus slow storage options can be wired up together for efficient storage and access.

SkyVault supports seven different content stores. These are the File content store (default SkyVault content store), Content store selector, S3 content store, Caching content store, Aggregating content store, Encrypted content store, and Centera content store. For more information on each content store, see Content store types.

Common behaviour of different content stores

• Content stores always write to a new location, so binary files are never overwritten. The content is never modified.
• Each content store can support its own URL standard.

Content binaries life cycle

Stage 1 - Content writes: When you create a file in SkyVault, it becomes a content (in form of a .bin file) and is stored in the default file content store, for example <ALFRESCO_HOME>\alf_data\ contentstore directory. The metadata of the content is stored in the database. The database contains a reference to that .bin file.

Stage 2 - Content reads: When a request is made to the ContentStore for a ContentReader, the client reads the content using methods on the ContentReader.

Stage 3 - Copying, moving and versioning files: The content binaries are never modified by any high-level process. Moving, copying and versioning a file merely affects the content metadata. It is possible to end up with several references to the same raw binary content. Also, writes to the file system do not become visible until the metadata has been committed to the database.

system.content.orphanCleanup.cronExpression=0 0 4 * * ?

dir.contentstore.deleted=${dir.root}/contentstore.deleted

system.content.orphanProtectDays=14