This is a very short help file. Hopefully it will explain how to use the web site management interface. It is organized by sections of the screen.

Status panels

Often the topmost few panels of the interface will contain status message, confirming that a task has been accomplished, or error messages, indicating that a task has failed. If no task has been requested (that is, if you are simply browsing through the file system) the status panels will be omitted from the interface.

Select buffer panel

A very important and useful feature of the interface is the select buffer, pictured at right. This is basically a list of files and/or directories that you carry around with you when you are browsing. You add items to the select buffer by clicking on the [sel] link next to its name in the directory or file panels (see below). Once in the select buffer, there are three possible actions you can take, indicated by links to the left of each file or directory.

  • [rem] Remove the file or directory from the select buffer. This does not affect the file or directory itself in any way.
  • [move] Move the file or directory from its original location to the current directory (see browsing panel, below). It is deleted from its original location.
  • [copy] Copy the file or directory from its original location to the current directory (see browsing panel, below). It is not deleted from its original location.
When a file is moved or copied to the current directory, it is also removed from the select buffer. Also, the select buffer is only visible if it contains files or directories. Otherwise it is omitted from the management interface display.

Browsing panel

The browsing panel is very simple. It displays a string that contains the path to the directory you are currently browsing. This path has a separate link for each of the directories above and including the one you are currently viewing (in the screenshot at right there is only a single directory, since I was browsing at the top level of my web space at the time I took it). Clicking on any of these directory names will immediately take you there.

Directory panel

The directory panel (see right) displays one line for each subdirectory of the directory you are viewing (as indicated in the browsing panel, above). There are three actions that can be taken for each of these subdirectories using the directory panel.

  • Click on the directory itself. This will immediately take you to the directory you clicked on. Lógico.
  • [del] Delete the directory. Note that directories have to be empty in order to be deleted by this method. If you attempt to delete a directory that is not empty you will get an error message. To delete a directory with contents, see the force delete panel, below.
  • [sel] Add the directory to the select buffer, as described above. If the directory is already in the select buffer, no [sel] link will be displayed to the right of the directory name (as is the case with the directory tapdoc1 in the screenshot).

File panel

The file panel is structured in essentially the same manner as the directory panel, described above. It displays all of the files located in the directory that you are currently browsing. There are four actions that can be taken for each of these files using the file panel.

  • Click on the file name itself. This will open the file in your web browser. What you see will depend on how your browser is configured, but generally images and html files will be displayed in the browser, while other file types will either be opened by a helped application or saved to disk. If you want to download a file, in order to edit it, say, you can of course always right click (in Windows and Linux, at any rate) on the file name, and the select "save to disk" from the dialog box that pops up.
  • [del] Delete the file. Note that there is no "undo" in this interface, so you should be careful with this. The file will be gone forever, beyond hope of recovery. This is a good reason that you should always keep a copy of your entire website on you own computer, just in case something goes wrong. It is fairly easy to "slip" and delete a file by mistake. If this happens, simply upload another copy from your own computer.
  • [sel] Add the file to the select buffer, as described above. If the file is already in the select buffer, no [sel] link will be displayed to the right of the file name (as is the case with the file NSF_informe.pdf in the screenshot).
  • [exp] If the filename ends in .zip, .tar, or .tar.gz, this option will appear to the file's right. This is not pictured on the screenshot. Clicking on this link will expand the archive file in the current directory. Note that only these three kinds of archive files are support right now.

Create directory panel

You can use this form box to create a new subdirectory with the directory you are currently browsing. Simply type the name for the new directory into the textbox, and press the "create" button. As always, you should use names containing only letters and numbers, and perhaps dashes (-) and underscores (_). Other kinds of characters should be avoided. The new directory will appear immediately.

Force delete panel

This panel contains a popup menu and a submission button. The popup menu contains all of the subdirectories located in the directory that you are currently browsing. If you want to delete a directory and all of its contents, simply select the directory name from the popup menu and then press the "delete" button. You should be very careful with this, of course, since once the delete has been done there is no way to recover deleted directories and files. You should always keep a copy of all of your files on your own computer in case something like this happens accidentally. It's a god policy, anyway.

Rename panel

This panel is used to rename a file or directory located within the directory you are currently browsing. To rename a file or directory, select it form the popup menu on the left. In this menu, directory names are enclosed in [braces], while file names are unadorned. After selecting the name of the file or directory you want to rename, enter the new name in the text box to the right, and then press the "rename" button. The new name will take place immediately. The interface will not overwrite an existing file. As always, use only alphanumeric characters and dashes (-) and underscores (_) in file and directory names.

Upload panel

This panel is used to upload files to the directory you are currently browsing. There are two general kinds of files you might wish to upload.

  • Single files Uploading one file at a time is the simplest procedure. To select a file to upload, press the "browse" button and select it form you local computer's filesystem. When you have selected the file you want, push the "upload" button. The file will immediately appear in the directory you are currently browsing.
  • Archive files It would very tedious, however, to upload large numbers of files one at a time. For this reason, the management interface is capable of uploading file archives (that is, files containing one or more other files and or directories). To do this, select and archive using the "browse" button, as described above. However, before you upload the file you should check the box labeled "expand archive". This tells the script that the contents of the archive should be extracted into the directory you are currently browsing. After checking the box, you may then press "upload". The file will be uploaded and expanded.
Note that at present the script can expand only three kinds of archive files: 1) .zip files, created by pkzip, winzip, or any number of other applications, 2) .tar files, more common in the UNIX world, and 3) gzipped .tar files (.tar.gz), again more of a UNIX thing.