I think I want a content management system. Do I? Advice.

February 13, 2018 5:08 PM

I have a lot of files in a Windows 10 filesystem. I want to put them online so that my solicitor (and nobody else) can access them. My best present solution: Zip the files, FTP the whole thing over to a filespace I own, password protect the directory, and let my solicitor download it in one big lump. It's an acceptable fallback but I'd rather have a nice interface we both can use to search and so forth. Suggestions?

I have a domain name registered with Namecheap linked to nearly 20 GB of storage. Namecheap provides lots of apps I can use, but only some are free and I'd rather save money.

Apps that include search functions are good, but any search function has to look inside PDFs because a huge part of the files are PDFs converted from emails in the stupid one-email-per-directory format which was the only way I could find to keep email attachments associated with their respective emails. Any solution that involves manually extracting each PDF and associated file from its directory is too much work. I can still access the original emails if there's a better way to do this.

posted by Joe in Australia to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Can you just use Dropbox and share the folder(s) with the solicitor? Then you don't need to send or upload the files anywhere manually -- it automatically shares the files on your computer to only the Dropbox user who you've given access to, in this case your solicitor. A free account might be enough, or you can pay for a huge amount of storage. Dropbox or Box is how I've always shared large amounts of files with someone. Both have search functions and built-in recovery for accidentally delete files. Both have web interfaces but I've always used the desktop folder function, which integrates with your computer so you aren't doing anything other than using your computer the way you always do.
posted by AppleTurnover at 6:10 PM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yeah, Dropbox or Google Drive or Box or any of the other competitors.
posted by RustyBrooks at 6:27 PM on February 13, 2018

Former tax accountant, we routinely used Google Drive with clients for this. Google isn't a perfect company, but they've spent a lot of time trying to keep their service secure. Anything you manage yourself is going to be less secure than Google or Dropbox unless you are actually a professional at this already. But that aside, Google Drive's interface for PDFs is pretty okay, though I don't remember ever trying to search them. It was reasonably nice for organizing bank statements, anyway.
posted by Sequence at 6:34 PM on February 13, 2018

Box is being used by law firms, intellectual property owners, and financial and governmental institutions over tools like Dropbox or Google Drive because it affords extra control over sharing rights, does a better job of logging access, and has gone to greater lengths to become compliant with tough electronic file security protocols like HIPAA, the US health care records privacy law. Probably all three afford enough security if it's just file sharing between two individuals, but Box is the best choice if security is the only criterion.

Google Drive offers by far the most free drive space, but is always trying to get you to convert your files to its format.

Dropbox has the best synchronization to your local filesystem for relatively small file collections -- it feels just like using any other folder on your computer. Box's synchronization is much clunkier, in part to allow users to more selectively synchronize different files and subfolders spread across bigger file collections. In both cases, you've got a new folder on your hard drive and you can search it like any other folder using any tools you already use.
posted by mississippi at 8:30 PM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

A CMS is a weird solution for a case where you don't explicitly want a public-facing one-to-many interface, which suggests to me that it's a weird solution for your use case. What folks have suggested as far as Google Drive or Dropbox feels like a better fit: less random web-facing baggage, fewer security concerns, and probably providing totally sufficient directory structure and search functionality if this is really something for an audience of (a) you and (b) your solicitor. You don't need abstract search functionality for two people, and anything your solicitor really needs beyond that they can structure to their own specific needs using tools they're already comfortable with.

There may be a non-corporate solution for that if Google or Dropbox is a poor fit, but if that's a standout issue basically no web-facing stock solution is a better idea. That'd be more of a thing where your solicitor spins up a specific local non-networked solution they specifically trust.
posted by cortex at 8:39 PM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'll 2'nd Box.com. You can get the started package for $15/month.
posted by WizKid at 9:48 PM on February 13, 2018

You can also roll your own DropBox with OwnCloud.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:36 AM on February 14, 2018

Speaking as a lawyer (but not your lawyer) does your Solicitor not have a solution for this? Lawyers use specialized ESI tools for this, and generally provide clients with ways to transmit this kind of information to the ESI vendor for processing to deal with things like security and search.
posted by The Bellman at 10:16 AM on February 14, 2018