File manager: work and functions

Hosting ho.ua offers its users various hosting support and administration tools. One of such developments is file manager - a system for managing the contents of your home directory.

File manager can easily replace the FTP client for filling and editing the contents of your site, and its additional features will allow you to do this easily and quickly. Unlike standard FTP client programs, file manager is written specifically for managing the contents of your site and allows even a novice web programmer to quickly and easily fill the contents of his site. Supporting the site with an intuitive web interface is also easy.

The most important thing is that file manager works on the server side, and does not tie you to a particular computer and the software installed on it. All you need to manage the your site content is a computer with any graphical browser connected to the Internet.

Below is a brief description of our file manager, highlighting its functions and capabilities, and showing examples of its most interesting capabilities in use.

Content

• File manager description
• File manager: work and functions
• File manager: work and functions (continuation)
• File manager: examples of work

File manager description

To enter the file manager, you must enter your login and password for FTP access to your home directory (you can also get to the file manager from the hosting control panel using the appropriate link). To work in the file manager, it is desirable that your browser supports the work of JavaScript (all modern browsers have support for JavaScript scripts), and, if possible, files cookies. If your browser does not support JavaScript, then some important operations (deleting a file or directory and other operations that change the contents of your home directory) will be performed without repeated confirmation from your side.

After successful authorization, you get to the file manager. The general structure of the file manager is as follows (Fig. 1): at the top are displayed information messages on current operations (see below), and at the bottom are a list of existing links in the menu (duplicated at the top and bottom).

Fig. 1. File manager appearance

The list of contents of the current directory consists of the following fields:

• name of the file or directory;
• access mode of the file or directory;
• size of the file or directory;
• time of the last modification of the file or directory;
• options corresponding to the given file or directory.

The contents of the current directory can be displayed sorted by the following fields: name, size and time of last modification, both in ascending and descending order. To sort by a field, you simply need to click on the name of this field. Clicking on the field name again changes the sorting mode to the opposite.

The following options are possible for directories from the list of contents of the current directory:

• viewing the contents of a directory ("opening") - to do this, simply click on the icon or name of the desired directory;
• changing the access mode of a directory - to do this, you need to click on the current access mode for the corresponding directory (read more);
• renaming a directory - to do this, you need to click on the corresponding icon from the options column (read more). Some directories, such as ~/htdocs and ~/logs, which are necessary for the web server to function properly, cannot be renamed. This option also allows you to move a directory to other directories (see further);
• removing a directory - to do this, you need to click on the corresponding icon from the options column (read more). This operation requires careful consideration, since deleting a directory will permanently delete all of its contents. Some directories (~/htdocs and ~/logs) also cannot be deleted.

The following options are possible for files from the list of contents of the current directory:

• viewing a file directly in the browser - is only possible for text files no larger than 200 kb and graphic images of standard formats used on the Internet. When viewing some files (related to cgi scripts or html files), their contents are displayed with "syntax highlighting". In this case, at the bottom right of the window with the file text, there is a link to go back and, provided that the file size is no more than 100 kb, a link to edit this file (see further). Direct viewing in the browser of graphic files is also possible (see further);
• archive unpacking - this option allows you to unpack an archive directly on the server (supported archives are zip, rar, tar, gz, bzip2, tgz and tbz2). This feature was created specifically for filling the site with a large number of files: you just need to create a corresponding archive of files, upload it to the server and unpack this archive! When unpacking, the integrity of the internal "file tree structure" is preserved, and the script files from the archive also undergo additional processing: incorrect line breaks (the so-called DOS translations), which are the reason for the inoperability of scripts that are quite functional at first glance, are eliminated. The correct access mode is also set for executable files and cgi scripts from the archive - 755. Be sure to use this option to unzip the archive on the server - and you will get rid of many tedious checks and debugging of your scripts. Read more;
• downloading a file from the server to your local computer allows you to download the file to your computer for further processing;
• replacing a file with a new one allows you to replace the file with a new version. When you click on this link, a standard form for uploading a file to the server appears (see further), and after uploading, the new file replaces the old one. The name of the uploaded file is ignored;
• renaming a file - to do this, you need to click on the corresponding icon from the options column (read read more). This option also allows you to move the file to other directories (see further);
• removing a file - to do this, you need to click on the corresponding icon from the options column (read more). Removing a file also requires careful consideration.

The following options are also available for the current directory, links to which are located in the directory menu (above and below):

• uploading a file to the current directory (see further);
• creating a new directory in the current directory (see further);
• clearing the current directory allows you to delete all the contents of the current directory without deleting the directory itself (see further);
• editing directory settings - editing the access parameters of this web server directory (.htaccess file) allows you to quickly and easily set up frequently used Apache web server directives for this directory (specifying, for example, the default index file for the directory, controlling the display of the directory in the absence of an index file, password access to the directory, etc.) (see more).
• Restoring the original hosting files - if you accidentally deleted or changed the hosting files that were located in your home directory so that the site stopped functioning normally, you can restore some or all of the hosting files (see more).

The following section describes the capabilities of the file manager in more detail..