I have had a couple of customers in the past that required the ability to deal with large numbers of attachments (PDF, MS DOC or XLS) without having to upload the files using the media manager and then manually linking to that file from an article. They want something that is a one-stop process within an article.
Ultimately customers in the past have opted to move away from attachments so we never went ahead with deployment. However, I now have 2 customer that need attachment managed and have a long legacy with PDFs and they can't move away from the them completely, so we need to come up with an attachment strategy.
It's important that any solution support Joomla's access control lists (ACL) and handle multilingual sites (One version of the document in English, and one version of it in French).
Attachments
Non-commercial
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/directory-a-documentation/downloads/3115
Has a handy demo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMzOVNfYJIo&hd=1
Doesn't look like it has the ability to differentiate between people who can see that an attachment exists on a page vs people who have permission to download them.
Allows uploads from registered users from the front end.
I've used this extension on a couple of sites include one that used Joomfish to support two languages and it allows different attachments for each language.
I this solution. It seems robust and reliable and is easy for the end user to use. It stores all of the attachments at the end of the articles or can be configured to store them at the start of the articles.
Edocman
Commercial. $24.99.
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/directory-a-documentation/downloads/18008
Sounds like a good and organized system. The comments are all unanimously positive. Sounds like there is responsive support.
Provides a structured method of organizing documents into categories and sub-categories. Allows you to provide a description of each attachment that looks like an article with download and detail buttons at the bottom of each article which are then arranged in a blog layout.
It claims to harness the ACL to manage different permission levels.
Multilingual support that only shows documents relevant to a language.
Easy Folder Listing Pro (also Easy Folder Listing)
Commercial: $7
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/directory-a-documentation/downloads/14983
It's not clear from the description how well or if it supports ACL.
Generally Good reviews.
Docman
Commercial: $69 for 1 year subscription to Joomla tools.
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/directory-a-documentation/downloads/10958
Seems a little expensive.
JDownloads
Non-commercial
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/directory-a-documentation/downloads/2849
http://www.jdownloads.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=115&Itemid=75
Mostly good reviews. Sounds like it supports ACL
Sounds like a good no-cost solution. Donations are welcomed.
Remonsitory
http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/directory-a-documentation/downloads/83
Sounds like it covers all the bases as well. Also has special features for allowing playing or download of videos. Files can be uploaded by users and locally hosted and can be stored in the file system or in the database. Thumbnails can be uploaded or automatically generated. Supports ACL.