Providing for persistent files in a web-app

[Frank Lawlor <fr...@athensgroup.com>]

I have a web app that allows users to add files to 
the app, some of which can be displayed via URL
references (many different file types).

Currently these files are in a subdirectory ("New") of the
web-app.  This creates a maintenance problem
since replacing the web-app (erase webapps/MyApp.war,
erase webapps/MyApp directory, and deploy new 
MyApp.war) also destroys the "New" directory.

Rather that having a complicated process of saving
and restoring the "New" directory it seems like it 
would be better to keep it elsewhere.  However, the
contents still need to be displayable in a browser as URLs.

The best approach I could think of was to add a 
simple tomcat web-app whose only purpose is to
hold the contents of "New".

Any problems with this approach?  Is there a 
better/simpler approach?

Frank Lawlor
Athens Group, Inc.
(512) 345-0600 x151
Athens Group, an employee-owned consulting firm integrating technology
strategy and software solutions.