Downloadable Products

I have noticed that when selling digital content, the default storage location is var/downloads/

Then when I add a digital product, it creates an additional directory (the Product ID?) and inside that, it places the .zip file, for example, var/downloads/123/MyEgood.Zip

I don't really understand the reason behind the system creating a new directory every time a new digital product is added?

Wouldn't it be best to place all digital files in a single directory, for example, var/downloads/? (Seems to me it would make file management much easier for backend user.)

A path to a single var/downloads/ folder would have many advantages:

  • Easy to FTP and upload files as they are sold. If you know you just sold product, sku AB110, you could just upload it directly to var/downloads/ ...without having to figure out the product id no. Could be done easy using a cell phone and ftp client.
  • Easy to check if a Zip file is missing or to check file size, using FTP.
  • If customer complaints that he/she downloaded a corrupt file, using FTP I could easily compare file size, reupload/overwrite, etc.
  • I can reupload any egood Zip file to the var/downloads/ folder without having to figure out under what product id folder to place it in

Just seems to me things would be much easier to work with using a single directory, specially if one has hundreds of files. Wonder if someone can put some light on this topic?

Is it possible to place all files in the var/downloads/ directory? and if so, what are the disadvantages?

Thank you