diff --git a/cms/templates/widgets/upload_assets.html b/cms/templates/widgets/upload_assets.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..876166fdf7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cms/templates/widgets/upload_assets.html
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+<section>
+  <div class="assset-upload">
+    You can upload file assets to reference in your courseware
+    <form action="${upload_asset_callback_url}" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
+      <input type="file" name="file">
+      <input type="submit" value="Upload File">
+    </form>
+  </div>
+  <div class="asset-upload-progress">
+    <div class="bar"></div>
+    <div class="percent">0%</div>
+  </div>
+
+  <div id="status"></div>
+
+<section>
+
+<script src="http://malsup.github.com/jquery.form.js"></script>
+<script>
+(function() {
+    
+var bar = $('.bar');
+var percent = $('.percent');
+var status = $('#status');
+   
+$('form').ajaxForm({
+    beforeSend: function() {
+        status.empty();
+        var percentVal = '0%';
+        bar.width(percentVal)
+        percent.html(percentVal);
+    },
+    uploadProgress: function(event, position, total, percentComplete) {
+        var percentVal = percentComplete + '%';
+        bar.width(percentVal)
+        percent.html(percentVal);
+    },
+complete: function(xhr) {
+status.html(xhr.responseText);
+}
+}); 
+
+})();       
+</script>
diff --git a/common/djangoapps/contentserver/__init__.py b/common/djangoapps/contentserver/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e69de29bb2
diff --git a/common/djangoapps/contentserver/middleware.py b/common/djangoapps/contentserver/middleware.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..48b760a8d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/djangoapps/contentserver/middleware.py
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+import logging
+
+from django.http import HttpResponse, Http404
+
+from xmodule.contentstore.django import contentstore
+from xmodule.contentstore import StaticContent
+from cache_toolbox.core import get_cached_content, set_cached_content
+from xmodule.exceptions import NotFoundError
+
+
+class StaticContentServer(object):
+    def __init__(self):
+        self.match_tag = StaticContent.get_location_tag()
+
+    def process_request(self, request):
+        # look to see if the request is prefixed with 'c4x' tag
+        if request.path.startswith('/' + self.match_tag):
+
+            # first look in our cache so we don't have to round-trip to the DB
+            content = get_cached_content(request.path)
+            if content is None:
+                # nope, not in cache, let's fetch from DB
+                try:
+                    content = contentstore().find(request.path)
+                except NotFoundError:
+                    raise Http404
+
+                # since we fetched it from DB, let's cache it going forward
+                set_cached_content(content)
+            else:
+                logging.debug('cache hit on {0}'.format(content.filename))
+
+            response = HttpResponse(content.data, content_type=content.content_type)
+            response['Content-Disposition'] = 'attachment; filename={0}'.format(content.name)
+            
+            return response
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/contentstore/__init__.py b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/contentstore/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..08658ea721
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/contentstore/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+class StaticContent(object):
+    def __init__(self, filename, name, content_type, data):
+        self.filename = filename
+        self.name = name
+        self.content_type = content_type
+        self.data = data
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def get_location_tag():
+        return 'c4x'
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def compute_location_filename(org, course, name):
+        return '/{0}/{1}/{2}/asset/{3}'.format(StaticContent.get_location_tag(), org, course, name)
+
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/contentstore/django.py b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/contentstore/django.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d8b3084135
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/contentstore/django.py
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+from __future__ import absolute_import
+from importlib import import_module
+from os import environ
+
+from django.conf import settings
+
+_CONTENTSTORE = None
+
+def load_function(path):
+    """
+    Load a function by name.
+
+    path is a string of the form "path.to.module.function"
+    returns the imported python object `function` from `path.to.module`
+    """
+    module_path, _, name = path.rpartition('.')
+    return getattr(import_module(module_path), name)
+
+
+def contentstore():
+    global _CONTENTSTORE
+
+    if _CONTENTSTORE is None:
+        class_ = load_function(settings.CONTENTSTORE['ENGINE'])
+        options = {}
+        options.update(settings.CONTENTSTORE['OPTIONS'])
+        _CONTENTSTORE = class_(**options)
+
+    return _CONTENTSTORE
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/contentstore/mongo.py b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/contentstore/mongo.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..eddb162539
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/contentstore/mongo.py
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+from pymongo import Connection
+import gridfs
+from gridfs.errors import NoFile
+
+import sys
+import logging
+
+from . import StaticContent
+from xmodule.exceptions import NotFoundError
+
+
+class MongoContentStore(object):
+    def __init__(self, host, db, port=27017):
+        logging.debug( 'Using MongoDB for static content serving at host={0} db={1}'.format(host,db))
+        _db = Connection(host=host, port=port)[db]
+        self.fs = gridfs.GridFS(_db)
+
+    def update(self, content):
+        with self.fs.new_file(filename=content.filename, content_type=content.content_type, displayname=content.name) as fp:
+            fp.write(content.data)
+            return content
+    
+    def find(self, filename):
+        try:
+            with self.fs.get_last_version(filename) as fp:
+                logging.debug('fetched {0}'.format(fp.name))
+                return StaticContent(fp.filename, fp.displayname, fp.content_type, fp.read())
+        except NoFile:
+            raise NotFoundError()
+
+
+