I've used both Liferay and Alfresco trying to use them as the Document Management System for an intranet.

I noticed the following:

• They use the file system and the database to store files
• They use a GUID to name the file on the filesystem and that GUID is used as an Id in the database.
• The GUID-named file is a binary file
• The GUID-named binary file stores all versions for a given file
• The path for the file in the DMS doesn't match the one in the file system
• The URL makes reference to the GUID when a certain file is requested

What I want to know is why is this, and what would be the best way of doing it. Like how to would you create the binary file (zip?), and what parts would you keep in the binary file and what parts would you store in the database (meta-data, path?).

I'm assuming some of the benefits of doing it like this. As having the same URL for a file, regardless of its current document path. And having only one file even if the file has changed names over time.