Overview
File Management: An Introduction FileMan The Toolbar Search Replace Upload New File New Dir Prefs The Files Menu View Name Size File Type Modified Owner Permissions The Command Bar Edit Download Copy Delete Move Chmod Tail Perl Diff Compress FileMan is a web-based file manager that allows you to completely manage a website without the need for FTP or Shell access. FileMan provides you with numerous management options not found in FTP programs, but unlike FTP programs is designed solely for personal web management (meaning that remote domains cannot be accessed). File Management: An Introduction File management is key to all computer systems, from basic home PC’s to elaborate servers. A well-structured system of files not only enables you to find resources quickly and easily, but also lets you provide web access to files you wish to make accessible online. Files are organized using directories (folders). Directories contain files and other directories. When using FileMan, you will have one root directory which will contain all other directories and files. It might help to visualize your directory structure as a sort of tree diagram, with directories and files “branching down” from your one root directory.
This illustration shows the structure of a hypothetical web domain account. In FileMan, as well as many other applications, file locations are specified using paths. Paths are strings of text that define the location of a file by providing the name of each directory and sub-directory (separated by forward slashes) that must be sequentially opened to find the file. Paths usually begin with a forward slash: /. The forward slash symbolizes the root directory. The path to the “currentlogo.jpg” file in this illustration would be: /images/logos/currentlogo.jpg since the “currentlogo.jpg” file is found in the “logos” directory, found in the “images” which is itself located in the root directory. FileMan allows you to view and manage your files using directories and paths. While managing files in FileMan, the path to a directory will be displayed in the Toolbar, with all of the files and directories in that directory displayed in the Files Menu. Note: You cannot use any blank spaces while naming directories or files. It is also recommended that you do not use upper-case letters in directory and file names; paths are case sensitive online, and upper-case letters are usually avoided to avoid confusion.
There are three main components of FileMan: the Toolbar (displayed at the top of the page), the Files Menu (the list of directories, files and statistics in the middle of the page) and the Command Bar (displayed at the bottom of the page). While these three components do not operate separately from one another, they and their features will be discussed separately for the purposes of organization. The Toolbar provides you with the location you are currently viewing in FileMan, as well as a series of tools that allow you to manage your files.
In the top left corner of the Toolbar, the location of the directory you are currently viewing will be displayed; /GT/FileMan is being displayed in the example above. Thus, all files and directories in that location will be displayed in the Files Menu. You can click on of the directory names listed to view that directory. The “Directory:” field in the top right corner of the Toolbar allows you to open a directory found in the location currently being displayed (thus, this box acts like a "cd" command). If you are viewing a directory which contains another directory called “images”, for example, entering “images” in the “Directory:” field and clicking “Go” will open the “images” directory and display its contents in the Files menu. If you wish, you can also enter a multi-directory path in the "Directory:" field, such as "images/logos" Search
-The “Look in:” drop-down menu allows you to choose whether you wish to search the entire directory you are viewing, or only selected files and subdirectories within that directory (select these files and directories by clicking the checkboxes beside them in the Files menu). Note that directories “above” the one you are viewing cannot be searched; searching a directory named “images” in the root directory will not search any of the other directories and files in the root directory. -Choose whether or not your search will be “case sensitive” using the checkbox provided. -Choose whether to search the contents of files in the directory you are searching with the “Search Contents” checkbox provided. If you are searching a directory with a text file called “test.txt”, which itself contains the string “this is a test”, searching for “this is” will only return “test.txt” if the “Search Contents” function is enabled. -Choose whether or not you wish to search using a regular expression with the “Expression” checkbox provided. This allows users with some knowledge of regular expressions to search for files with content meeting specified criteria. Clicking the “Expression” checkbox will automatically check the “Search Contents” box. Replace
-The “Look in:” drop-down menu allows you to choose whether you wish to search the entire directory you are viewing for the string you wish to replace, or only selected files and subdirectories within that directory (select these files and directories by clicking the checkboxes beside them in the Files menu). Note that directories “above” the one you are viewing cannot be searched for strings to replace; searching a directory named “images” in the root directory will not search any of the other directories and files in the root directory. -Choose whether or not your search for strings will be “case sensitive” using the checkbox provided. -Choose whether or not you wish to search using a regular expression with the “Expression” checkbox provided. This allows users with some knowledge of regular expressions to search for files with content meeting specified criteria. Clicking the “Expression” checkbox will automatically check the “Search Contents” box. -Choose whether your search will return and replace “Whole words only” with the checkbox provided. A “whole word only” search for “test” would not return any instances of the words “testing” or “tester”, for example. -If you choose to “Create .bak file”, a backup file containing the original contents of the file before replacement will be created in the same directory as any files that were modified by the replacement. If, for example, you had a file named “colour.txt” containing the word “blue”, and you used the replace option to substitute “blue” with “red” with the “Create .bak file” option enabled, two files would now appear in the directory that “colour.txt” is located in: a “colour.txt” file containing the word “red”, and a “colour.txt.bk” file containing the word “blue”. Upload
-The current directory that the file will be uploaded to is displayed at the top of the form. -Click the “Browse…” button to select a file, or simply enter the path to the desired file in the “File name:” field. -You can select the format of the file you wish to upload: choose Ascii, Binary or Auto. Ascii format should be used for files that use plain text with no formatting, binary should be used for all other types of files. The auto option will automatically determine which format to use; you will usually not need to specify either Ascii or binary. -If you wish to overwrite existing files with newly uploaded files that have the same name, check the “Overwrite” box, otherwise an error message will appear. -If you wish to upload multiple files at the same time, click the “Multiple Upload” link to see a menu allowing you to specify up to ten files at a time. -Click the “Upload” button to upload the file to the directory. New File
-By default, the HTML editor will be displayed. The HTML editor allows you to enter formatted text (such as bolded or coloured text as well as multiple fonts) and URLs without using any tags. You can switch to plain text if you prefer by clicking the “Switch to Text” button. Note: The HTML editor will only function in Internet Explorer 5.5 or later. Netscape and earlier versions of IE will only be able to use the plain text editor. -Enter the contents of the new file. -Enter a file name with the appropriate extension in the field provided, and click the “Save document” button. Your new file will now appear in the directory. New Dir
-Enter a name for the new directory in the field provided and click the “Create” button. Your new directory will now be displayed in the Files menu. Prefs
Password Directory: This field allows you to specify the path to a directory in which files containing usernames and passwords you specify with the Protect option will be stored. Working Directory: If you wish to select a directory other than your root directory as the default directory that will be displayed when you open FileMan, enter the path to that directory in this field. Do not include a trailing slash. Sort Order: This drop-down menu allows you to select the criteria by which the files and directories you view are sorted. Rows per page: You can configure the maximum number of files and directories that will be displayed per page in the Files menu while using FileMan in this field. Check the “All files” box to display all files and directories on a single page. Pages per screen: At the bottom of the Files menu, a series of page numbers is displayed if the number of files and directories in the directory you are viewing exceeds the number defined in the above option. This field allows you to specify the maximum number of pages that will be displayed at the bottom of the Files menu; additional pages can be accessed by clicking the direction arrows to the left and right of the list of pages. Editor mode: This option allows you to choose whether the HTML editor or the plain text editor will be shown by default when the “New File” link is clicked. The README’s content: When you view a directory containing a file called “Readme”, the first ten lines of that file will automatically be displayed in the Files Menu. This option allows you to choose whether those lines will appear at the top or bottom of the Files Menu. Do you want to show hidden files?: Choose whether or not hidden files will be displayed while using FileMan. Scheme: You can choose from a series of pre-configured colour schemes in the drop-down menu. A sample screen will be displayed. Font: You can define the default font (in HTML format) that will be used in FileMan in this field. Click the “Save” button to confirm any changes you make to FileMan’s preferences, or click the “Cancel” button. The Files Menu displays the files and directories in the directory you are viewing and provides detailed information about each of them through a series of columns.
The checkboxes at the left of the Files Menu allows you to select files or directories for the commands found in the Commands Bar. Clicking the checkbox at the top of the menu automatically selects all displayed files and directories. View Name Size File Type Modified Owner Permissions Note: This option will not work if FileMan is running on a Windows server.
The Command Bar allows you to perform commands and actions upon files and directories that you have selected in the Files menu.
To the right of the list of commands, a line of text indicates the number of files or directories selected, and a summary of the cumulative size of the selected items. Edit Download
-Choose the format of the item(s) you are downloading in the “Options” drop-down menu. Choose between Ascii, Binary and Auto. Ascii format should be used for files that use plain text with no formatting, binary should be used for all other types of files. The auto option will automatically determine which format to use; you will usually not need to specify either Ascii or binary. -If you wish to download the item(s) in a compressed format, select the desired compression format (which should be indicated by the file extensions) from the “Compressed type” drop-down menu. Choose from None, .tar, .tar.gz and .zip. Note: if you are downloading multiple items, you will have to select a compression type. Note: If your server does not have extension modules that will handle the various compression types, they will not be available. Contact your system administrator if you need to have them installed. -Click the “Download” button. Copy
-Enter the path to the directory you wish to copy the item(s) to, and click the “Copy” button. Delete Move
-Enter the path to the directory you wish to move the item(s) to, and click the “Move” button. Chmod
Note: This option will not work if FileMan is running on a Windows server. Tail
-Enter how many of the file’s last lines you wish to view in the “Command” field. If you want the tail screen to automatically refresh while you are viewing it, choose a refresh rate (in seconds) from the drop-down menu. This option can be useful when you wish to view access and error logs as they are being generated. Perl
Diff
-Enter the path to the desired second file and click the “Diff” button. -The differences between the two files will be displayed in a new screen. Lines that are prefaced by a greater-than sign (>) are lines which appear in the second file but not in the first. Lines that are prefaced by a less-than sign (<) are lines which do not appear in the second file but do appear in the first. Compress
-Choose a compression format from the drop-down menu. Choose from .tar, .tar.gz and .zip. -Enter the path to the location you wish to save the compressed file in the field provided. Click the “Create File” button. Note: If your server does not have extension modules that will handle the various compression types, the "Compression" option will not be displayed. Contact your system administrator if you need to have them installed. Print |