Filelink / Filex User Manual

General

Logging in
On the login page you have to enter your account name and password. If Filex / Filelink is setup as a Web Based Storage Service you will see "Email" instead of "Account" above the first input box. If that is the case you also have an option to have your password resent to you. On the login page you can select a different language from the language listbox.

Navigating folders

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Normally you will navigate through your folders by clicking them in the list. These two alternatives allow you to jump directly to a folder. You can type the folder you want to view in the inputbox and press enter. Input can be a relative, physical or UNC path. If you have a RootFolder defined: entering "Folder" will change to "<RootFolder>\CurrentFolder\Folder", typing "\Folder" will change to "<RootFolder>\Folder" in your RootFolder. You will not see the actual RootFolder but only the relative path. Physical (e.g. "C:\winnt", D:\install") and UNC paths ("\\Server\Share") will normally be used by admins only, because they give access to the entire system, depending on NTFS permissions.
The last 30 folders that you have visited are stored in a history list. The most recently visited folders will appear at the top of the list. Folder names that are too long are shortened in a smart way so they will still be recognizable. When you select an entry you will be taken there immediately.Both the Input Box and History list can be disabled on the configuration page.
When multiple Rootfolders have been assigned to a group or user, a dropdown list will be shown where the user can choose a Rootfolder to display.

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Viewing folder contents
When you selected a folder, Filex / Filelink will display the contents of that folder in a table. You can select what properties you want to see and how many items you want to see on the configuration page (see further on). By clicking on the property in the column header you can change the sort order. The preferred sort order will be saved in the database. Hovering over the file or folder icon will show all the available properties of that item (Exact size, date Created, Downloads, etc.). To change folders you can click the Folder name or icon. Clicking a filename will download it, clicking the icon is only active for some types (see below).
If you want to perform actions on items you can have to select them first by clicking the checkbox in front of each item. The select box at the bottom row will select or deselect all items, clicking the file extension (if displayed) will select all files of that particular type. Many of the frequently used functions are also available on the context menu for easy access (IE5+ only). Just rightclick anywhere on the listing page. Use the CTRL key to bypass the menu if necessary, for example to save a file with "Save target as".

Edit text files
If a file is not defined as uneditable (based on the UnEditableExtensions setting defined by the admin), clicking the file icon will open an edit window where you can edit and save the text file. With the "Go to line" function you can jump to a specific line number. Do not edit or save files if you are not sure that they are plain text (for example: a DOC file that is not plain text but an MS Word document). Often you can recognize non-text binary files by a couple of strange characters in the edit window. A wysiwig editor is present to simplify manipulation of HTML files (IE55+). Note that this should only be used for plain HTML files, because it is not guaranteed that all contents is properly preserved when manipulating files that contain scripts.

View and edit MS Access databases
Using Filex / Filelink you can view, modify and compact MS Access databases using JET commands. Click the icon of an MDB file to view the contents of the database. A list of available tables will be visible. When you select a table from the listbox, all available fields in this database will be shown, including of the data type. You can run standard SQL queries (Update, Select, Insert, etc.) on the database to view or edit the contents of the database. Only use this function if you know what you are doing, because it could erase data in the database or even delete entire tables! By default a simple Select query is shown that will list all records in the first table. With the "Maximum length..." setting you can specify at what position long fields should be truncated. Clicking "Compact database" reduces the size of a frequently used database.

View and unpack ZIP files
By clicking the icon of a ZIP file you can view the contents of it in the familiar Filex / Filelink listing style. The list contains the name, date, size and compression ratio of each file. You can select individual items and extract them to the current folder. This function is only available if the Zip component is installed. Password-protected files will be displayed with a + after their names. If password protection is detected, a password inputbox wil be displayed so that you can enter the required password (only available if the component supports it).

File description
File descriptions can be used for any file that is located on an NTFS partition, for example for general file info or user instructions. On the configuration page you can choose if you want to display the Description field or not. The admin can configure a group to be able to create and modify file descriptions. If you are allowed to add descriptions, and a description is not present yet, you will see a light "Add" link to the description dialog. The only requirement is that the file is located on an NTFS filesystem, because the descriptions are saved in an NTFS stream. The description will be lost when the file is moved to a non-NTFS filesystem, downloaded or zipped. Make sure the file is not read-only or you will get a "Permission denied" error.


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Create new Folder
Use this function to create a new subfolder in the current folder.

Create a new text file
Use this function to create a new text file in the current folder. This is basically the same as "Edit text files", so you can check out that section for more info.

Upload files
You can upload files to the current folder using this function. Each file slot on the upload page can contain one file you can browse for on your local machine. Click the "Upload" button to start the upload. This may take several minutes, so be patient. The upload is complete when the main listing will be displayed again, now containing the uploaded files.

Download files
Regular downloads can be performed by clicking the file you want to download. Some file types are displayed in the browser instead of being downloaded (e.g. TXT, HTML, GIF). If you want all files to be downloaded you can check the "Download instead of view" option on the configuration page.
When the optional Zip component is installed, clicking this button will pack all selected files and folders to one Zip file with the same name as the containing folder, and send the file to your browser. When you have downloaded the file you can use your favorite Zip program to unzip it like you normally would.

Find files and folders
You can search for files and folders in the current folder by name, date (both modified and created are matched) or size. Searching all subfolders is optional.

Find text in selected files
Search for a simple text string in all selected editable files. Selected folders and non-text files (based on the UnEditableExtensions setting) will be ignored.

Send to any folder
This function is similar to the Windows Powertoys feature and allows you to copy or move files directly to any folder without having to change to that folder first. You can manually enter a target folder or select one from the History list.

Copy items
This will copy selected files and folders to the Filex / Filelink clipboard. To paste the selected items you have to navigate to the target folder and click the "Paste" button (only available if data is on the clipboard). Behavior is similar to Windows Explorer. If the target already exists, Filex / Filelink will add the string "Copy(n) of " to the file name (where n<99). That way you never have to be afraid you will overwrite an existing file, unless you delete it yourself first.

Cut items
Similar to the copy function, but this will cut the items instead of copying them.

Paste items
This button is only available if you previously copied or cut items. It will paste the items from the Filex / Filelink clipboard to the current folder. The icon description indicates how many items are on the clipboard to paste.

Rename item(s)
You can also search and replace strings in file names using the following syntax: /r:(Find this,Replace with this). Note that there is no space after the comma, unless you want it to be part of the replaced name.

Delete items
This will delete selected files and folders. If the current user has the Recycle Bin enabled, the items will be moved there first. To delete items permanently you need to go to the Recycle Bin and remove files there.

View and change item attributes
File and folder attributes can be viewed (in the main listing) and set. With this function you can add and remove attributes like the MSDOS ATTRIB command: +/- A(rchive) R(ead only) H(idden) S(ystem) Add /S to Include all items in selected subfolders.
Example: -H-S+A

Zip selected items
This function adds all selected files and folders to a ZIP file in the current folder. This function is only available if the Zip component is installed. The script will suggest a filename that you can change if needed. There are 2 additional command line switches (note that not all contols support these extended functions): /SFX and /Pass=mypass. The /SFX option will create a self-extracting zip file that you can use on systems where no zip program is installed. The /Pass option will add password protection to the archive. Example of a command line: myfile.zip /SFX /pass=secret.

Unzip selected zip files
This will unpack all selected ZIP files to the current folder. Selected folders and file types other than ZIP will be ignored. This function is only available if the Zip component is installed.

Extract file descriptions
Extract file description of selected files to a separate text file with the extension .nfo added to the originating file name. This can be convenient if you want to download or zip files, because file descriptions are lost when they leave the NTFS filesystem.

Send files by email
If email support is enabled, you can use this button to send all selected files by email. Selected folders will be ignored. You can add up to 6 recipients by entering multiple email addresses, separated by a comma.

Save URL
You can save URL's directly from the web to your Filex / Filelink folder using this function. Useful for transferring images, zipfiles etc. directly to Filex / Filelink instead of downloading it to the local workstation, followed by an upload dto Filex / Filelink. Just enter a valid web addres in the javascript popup (for example http://www.iisworks.com/Filex / Filelink/img/del.gif) and it will be saved. If you enter a script path that contains querystrings, the script path will be used for filename. Be careful not to overwrite your asp script files with the output of a web page with the same name!

Encrypt files
This function is intended for advanced users only. There are 2 options to be configured by the admin. One is simple XOR encoding. This method is not intended for protection of sensitive data, but just to prevent casual viewing of the file! The other method is strong encryption by use of the AES Encryption component that comes with Filex / Filelink, which can be used for sensitive data. Encrypted files can be recognized by the .ENC extension and will be decrypted when selected. If the AES component is used, you can create a stand-alone, self-decrypting file by adding the /SFX switch in the password input box when encrypting files. Such a SFX file is handy if you want to download the encrypted file for later use.

Recycle Bin
The Recycle bin can only be available if a RootFolder for the user is defined. If it is enabled, deleted files and folders will be moved here instead of being actually removed from the system. To delete items permanently you need to go to the Recycle bin and remove files there. The current Recycle bin size is displayed in the button description.

Configure Filex / Filelink
You can use this page to configure the appearance and behavior of Filex / Filelink. For example: change password, set your prefered language, change view settings, enable Recycle Bin, Show full dates, Beatify file names, Calculate folder sizes (slow for big folders/drives), Download instead of view. On this page you can also set what file properties you want to see in the listing: Name, Type, Size, Attribs, Modified, Created, Accessed and Short name. Note some functions may not be available, depending on the users configuration defined by the admin.

Logout current user
This will log off the current Filex / Filelink user and return to the login page. If NT Authentication support is enabled it will prompt the user to close the browser window.

Info
On this page you can find some useful general user information such as login name, count, duration, client browser and IP as well as RootFolder and bandwidth information (how much allocated and free). For admins there is also some basic IIS info available.

Go to home page
Contains a link to the home page. Default is the Filex / Filelink homepage, but it is configurable by the admin and can be set to the company's homepage.

User manager (Admins only)
You can search for, add, modify and delete accounts from this page or login as a user for testing. There is also a link to modify the global Filex / Filelink settings defined in global.asa.

View Filex / Filelink log
If enabled in global.asa, Filex / Filelink can log many important events in different loglevels. With this function you can search, view and clear the Filex / Filelink log. If the log file is empty you will receive a message that it was ignored.