Easy Question

[Jaymow99]

Where are the files actually located that are uploaded to a sharepoint document library. It says "Shared Documents", but is that a directory?

Joanne

 

[SPV]

The uploaded documents are held in the content database as blobs (binary large objects). The name of the document library (e.g. "Share documents") is just a piece of data held along with the blob in the db.

 

[philhege]

They're in the _SITE database, in the docs table. They can also be accessed outside of Sharepoint as a shared directory, but the directory name that you see in the Network Places window is not the same as the document library name, so YMMV.

Phil Hegedusich
Senior Programmer/Analyst
IIMAK

http://www.iimak.com

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Pity the insomniac dyslexic agnostic. He stays up all night, wondering if there really is a dog.

 

[Jaymow99]

YMMV??

Sorry not familar with that one.

Joanne M

 

[philhege]

It's an abbreviation for Your mileage may vary

 

[NuJoizey]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ymmv&btnG=Google+Search

 

[NuJoizey]

so if they're stored as BLOBs then does that mean that simulatneous updates and concurrency would be handled differently? - like if two people are working on an excel spreadsheet at the same time?

 

[philhege]

Sharepoint is a document collaboration tool. Documents are checked out for editing, and a rudimentary system of version control is in place. So only one person should be able to work on a document at a time. Other users can open, edit and save a local copy of the document, but the source document is editable only by the person who checked it out.

 

[SPV]

I prefer these:

http://www.acronymattic.com/results.aspx?q=YMMV

But then we are at the "WNAMOGTEATAIU" point (= we need a multitude of glossaries to explain all the acronyms in use).

But back to the SharePoint question...

It is worth noting that check out doesn't have to be enforced. In fact when you create a new document library, enforced check out is switched off by default. Personally I don't evisage ever leaving it like that, but we haven't started using SharePoint in a produdction environment yet.

Also,

They can also be accessed outside of Sharepoint as a shared directory

How does that manifest? This goes back to the UNC vs URL question Joanne raised.

If that bypasses SharePoint completely, doesn't it also bypass the check out and version control?

Or do you mean that you can File > Open from Word (say) and put the SharePoint URL into the file name field?