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You are working on a website for a client. He (the client) sends you a bunch of MS Word documents with text that you have to use in the website.

Where do you store them?

My approach would be to store them on my local server along with the source files for the website - in a folder named "res" (for "resources").

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This doesn't really make any sense. Are the word documents going to be downloaded from links on the site or do they just contain text FOR the site? – Piers Karsenbarg Dec 21 '10 at 11:09
@Piers, No, I'd store the files there for my own convenience only. – Emanuil Rusev Dec 21 '10 at 11:12
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What I'm trying to say is that I don't think this is really a valid question. You're basically asking "where should I store some files so I remember where they are?" – Piers Karsenbarg Dec 21 '10 at 11:27
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@Emanuil: Aside from using a proper project management application, how many different approaches are there to putting a set of documents in a folder? This isn't quite the same as designing a file structure for an application. I just don't think it's worth putting too much thought into. Though if you expanded the question to be "what are some useful project management practices?" that might be a worthwhile question. – Lèse majesté Dec 21 '10 at 11:46
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@Lèse majesté, I guess you are right. – Emanuil Rusev Dec 21 '10 at 11:48
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2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

I think there is value in storing them in an FTP-accessible directory for their site, calling it whatever... such as "ClientProvided" or "SourceDocuments."

Here is why:

  • Client, if they have FTP access, would unquestionably have access to the same docs they provided to you
  • Should you ever lose their account, or wish to fire them as a customer, everything is ready for transition to another web professional

While some people might have the opinion that if you don't do business with them you won't care or need to give them such source material, I'm of the belief that it's easier to just hand everything over (within your terms and conditions). What you don't want is future repeated calls for a trickling out of more files, more history/info, and also any suggestion by the client or another firm that you are uncooperative.

Like Kris suggested, JIRA and/or SVN could also be good places to put that data, but you might not want to hand over the contents of those, perhaps more internal and sensitive, forms of data.

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up vote 1 down vote

We use JIRA as an issue tracker. In the scenario you describe I'd open an issue on the update being requested and attach the Word document to the issue.

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