I realize that this question is slightly server related and could be posted on ServerFault, but I’m more asking about a programming-related way to handle this situation, so please forgive me if it seems a bit server-specific.
We currently have a web-based app that is running on Apache/PHP on a Linux server. We use PostgreSQL as our DB backend. Every night, our users have automatic uploads that drop their files onto our server. We then import their specific data (about users and schedules) into our PostgreSQL database. It works fairly well, but it’s not very scalable or secure as we have to create a user account on our server for each client that needs to drop off data.
I am currently rewriting the software from the ground up and will handle this much better in the future. I’m hoping to get some ideas from your answers about the best method to do this, however, until this new software is written, we need something to get us by.
I am currently setting up a new server to host our application (due to some recent failures) so I get to design this however I want to make it easier. I can make some code changes, or add some new methods for our users delivery of their files, but it must be secure and easy to automate on both Linux and Windows machines.
What are your suggestions for allowing clients to upload potentially large files securely, easily and automatically, but without us having to create a separate user account on our server? I am obviously open to a PHP-based solution (or another language if it’s more appropriate) and would definitely like to hear your thoughts on it regardless as I will be rewriting the software to function more like an API in regards to data uploads.
sftp is about the only way to go. Why do you need a web server involved?