Editing StorageController (section)

== Writing A Storage Plugin ==

Implement the methods above for your chosen storage medium. Note that the plug-in is resposible for any mapping from fileobj to a URI or path where the file exists. This leaves URI generation flexible however it must remain replicatable from the fileobj. 

Currently a local storage plug-in exists which replicates all legacy behaviour of the eprints storage system prior to containing a seporate storage layer. 

As a quick guide to writing a storage plug-in the following provides a template:

   Package EPrints::Plugin::Storage::NAME;
     
   use URI;
   use URI::Escape;
  
   use EPrints::Plugin::Storage;
  
   @ISA = ( "EPrints::Plugin::Storage" );
  
   use strict;
    
   sub new
   {
        my( $class, %params ) = @_;
   
        my $self = $class->SUPER::new( %params );
  
        $self->{name} = "NAME Storage Plugin";
   
        return $self;
   }
  
   sub store
   {
        my( $self, $fileobj, $fh ) = @_;
        
        ...
   
        return $success;
   }
   
   sub retrieve
   {
        my( $self, $fileobj, $revision ) = @_;
    
        ...
  
        return $in_file_handle;                        
   }
   
   sub delete
   {
        my( $self, $fileobj, $revision ) = @_;
        
        ...
   
        return $success;
   }              
   
   # Optional methods
   
   # get_local_copy() is provided by Storage::Plugin so does
   # not have to be implemented. If the file is stored
   # locally it may be more efficient to return it's filename
   # here rather than copying to a temporary file.

   sub get_local_copy
   {
        my( $self, $fileobj, $revision ) = @_;
        
        ...
        
        return $filename;
   }

   # get_remote_copy() allows the platform storing the file to directly
   # provide the file to the end user.

   sub get_remote_copy
   {
        my( $self, $fileobj, $uri ) = @_;
    
        ...
 
        return $uri;
   }