Notifications
Whether you want to store all your member's files such as photos, videos, etc. on your own server or you want to utilize a cloud or CDN service for safer and/or faster page loading, you have the power to decide and change these options on the “Storage System” page. SocialEngine is configured to allow you to use any type of cloud or CDN service that uses FTP or SCP.
If using VFS on storage systems, your server must have allow_url_fopen enabled in PHP.
After logging in to your Admin Panel, go to Settings > Storage System to access the “Manage Storage Services” page.
On the “Manage Storage Services” page, you’ll see that Storage Systems are categorized by: “ID”, “Title”, “Files”, “Storage Used”, “Enabled”, and “Default”.
ID - is a unique number that is assigned to each Storage System.
Title - is the name of the Storage System.
Files - are the total number of files currently stored in the Storage System.
Storage Used - is the amount of space in bytes that is currently in use by the Storage System.
Enabled - is whether the Storage System is currently being used by your site or not.
Default - is where the files are going to be stored by default unless the source code says otherwise.
Click on the "Add Service" button
Click on the arrow on the side of the select box to select a “Service Type”. The 3 options are: “Local Storage”, “Amazon S3”, and “Virtual Storage”.
Local Storage - any location on the server your site is currently running on to store the data files
Amazon S3 - cloud service by Amazon. Please go to the Amazon Simple Storage System site for more information.
Virtual Storage - any other type of cloud or CDN service that uses FTP or SCP
After you have selected a service, click on the "Add Service" button.
Depending on what type of storage you have chosen, you will need to fill out the proper information on the “Edit Storage Service Page”
Path Prefix - If you have chosen “Local Storage”, you will need to fill out this field. You will need to put which folder on your server that you would like use to save the data files. The default path is currently set to "public" which means /public folder. For example, if you wanted to set the storage folder to a folder in your root directory called "myFiles" then you would put "myFiles" in this field and it will point to the /myFiles directory when it saves files. If you wanted to save it to a folder inside myFiles called "mySite". Then you would put "myFiles/mySite" and it will point to the /myFiles/mySite directory to save data files.
Base URL - If you will be using a pull-type CDN for your storage, then you would need to fill out this field. You would need to insert the URL for the CDN in this field. The CDN site should be able to supply you with this URL. MaxCDN would work here if you are only using Photos; however, if your site is using Videos and/or Music, please refer to the next section on how to set up MaxCDN.
Enabled? - If you would like to start using this service, click on the "Yes, files can be stored and retrieved using this service." option. If you would like to stop using this service or save this configuration for future use, click on the "No, this service is disabled." option.
For instructions on how to set up other CDNs such as Amazon S3, CloudFront, or MaxCDN, please refer to the How to use the Cloud Storage Feature article.
If you would like to use a different server or virtual file system that uses FTP or SSH/SCP to store your data files, you would need to fill out the following fields.
VPS Adapter - Select whether you require FTP or SSH/SCP to connect to your virtual server.
Remote Host - Please put the FTP/SSH/SCP URL to your virtual server here.
Username - Put the username for the FTP/SSH/SCP account here.
Password - Put the password for the FTP/SSH/SCP account here
Path - Put the path to the directory you will be storing your files in on the virtual server here.
Base URL - Enter the Base URL to your system's directory here. Example: https://mystorageserver.com/sefiles/. In that example, you would be replacing the “mystorageserver.com/sefiles” with the actual path to your own storage server and folder.
Enabled? - If you would like to start using this service, click on the "Yes, files can be stored and retrieved using this service." option. If you would like to stop using this service or save this configuration for future use, click on the "No, this service is disabled." option.
To edit a Storage Service to turn it on/off or change its settings, click on the "edit" button for that Storage Service. Clicking on this link will bring up the same page used to create a Storage System. Please see above for information about each field.
If you have recently enabled a Storage Service and would like to transfer all of your existing files to this Storage Service, select the “Transfer” link for the Storage Service where you would like to transfer your files.
Once you click on the "Transfer" button, the transferring of files from your existing data location(s) to this Storage Service should start.
To remove a Storage Service from your “Manage Storage Services” list, you click the "delete" link on the same line as the Storage System you would like to remove.
