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WebShareIt installation and usage guide

This guide is intended for system administrators who are installing WebShareIt and using it for the first time, for more detailed information please see the technical manual.

The following sections describe...

• NT Installation.
• Unix Installation.
• How do I use it?
• What does the options page do?
• What does the add ftp page do?
• What does the shares page do?
• What does the locks page do?
• What does the visit page do?
• What does the mounts page do?
• What does the folders page do?
• Technical manual.
• Updates and version information.
• Downloads.
• Main page.

NT Installation

• Download the self extracting archive from here
• Execute the self ectracting archive, it will ask for a path to extract to and will run the installer when done extracting.
• Answer all the questions in the installer to the best of your knowledge and it will install the software.
• Test the install with http://your.site.com/scripts/webshareit.exe?cmd=login_show (replace your.site.com with actual site name)

Unix Installation

• Download the compressed tar file from here
• De-compress with "uncompress webshareit10a_linux.tar.Z"
• Create a temporary unpack directory called wsitemp
• Un-Tar with "tar -xvf webshareit10a_linux.tar wsitemp"
• Execute the installer "wsitemp\wsisetup"
• Answer all the questions in the installer to the best of your knowledge and it will install the software.
• Test the install with http://your.site.com/cgi-bin/webshareit.cgi?cmd=login_show (replace your.site.com with actual site name)

How do I use it?

The WebShareIt executable is a cgi, and so is used by entering a url like the one above into a web browser, do that now. You will be presented with a login screen.
During the installation process you will have entered the ip and port number for a Pop3 or Ftp, to login you must enter a valid username and password for that server.

Once you have logged in you will recieve the options page, this page collects personal information about a new user. The exact information collected is determined by entries in the newuser.dat file found in the webshareit installation directory. The default information is "Full name" and "Email address", click "save" to continue. Upon clicking "save" you will recieve the main page or "folders" page, this page lists your files and folders, as a new user you will not have any files, but you should have two folders "Private" and "Public" these are the default new user folders, and can be setup in the webshareit.ini file by you to be anything you want a new user to have.

At the top of the page you will notice several buttons, they are: folders, options, add ftp, shares, locks, visit and logout. Click some of these buttons and get to know your way around, but if you click the logout button you will do just that and have to login again, the folders button brings you back to the page you are on now. To find out some more information on the various pages have a look below.

What does the options page do?

The options page should look familiar, this was the first page you saw upon logging in. If you entered any personal information when you logged in it should appear here, you can add / remove and modify your personal information with this page.

What does the add ftp page do?

The add ftp page allows you to setup an ftp server to view / upload / download and transfer files to and from. To do so enter the ip address or name of the server, the port number if it is not using the standard ftp port number 21, and a valid username and password. Optionally you can enter a "home" directory that you want webshareit to show by default when you view it. Once all the data is entered you can either click "save" or "open", open will save the server information and also display the files / folders on the server whereas save will just save it and show you the add ftp page again.

At the bottom of the page you will see a list of currently saved servers, if you have not saved one yet it will say "-- no servers found --". Once you save a server you will be able to select it from this list to edit / remove or open it.

What does the shares page do?

The shares page allows you to view, edit and delete folder shares previously setup from the folders page. To share something you select the checkbox next to it on the folders page and click "share", then enter share details like share password, readonly, and allow anonymous access. Once you have shared something you will see it listed on the shares page, and will be able to edit / remove and email someone the details of how they can get the files in the folder you just shared.

What does the locks page do?

The locks page allows you to create, edit and delete file and folder locks you have created from the folders page. To lock files/folders you select the checkbox next to them on the folders page and click "lock". The lock page allows you to create locks as well but involves having to type the full path and filename of the thing you want to lock and will only let you lock one thing at once.

Once you have locked a file only you may unlock it and others will not be able to download it, upload and overwrite it, delete it, rename it, copy it, move it, or transfer it to somewhere else.

At the bottom of the page you will see a list of locked files and folders, if you have nothing locked you will see "-- no locks found --". Selecting a locked file in this list will allow you to un-lock it, which can also be done in the same manner from the folders page by selecting the locked files/folders and clicking the "unlock" button.

What does the visit page do?

The visit page lists all the other peoples folders you have visited. In order to visit someone else's shared folder you need to enter it's details in here or alternately login from a link that the person emailed to you. Once you have visited someone's folder it will be shown on this page allowing you to edit / remove it later, or visit it again.

What does the mounts page do?

The mounts page lists all the mounted folders setup by the administrator either in the newuser.dat or webshareit.ini files. These folders are virtual they appear to the user to be in the same place as the rest of thier folders BUT are in fact stored elsewhere. This means the administrator can allow users to upload / download files from anywhere on the server machine. The best use of these mounts is to allow users thier own website, to do this you simply have a mount created as each user is created by adding the path_translation setting to the newuser.dat file, this setting might look like this...

path_translation /web c:\inetpub\wwwroot\users\$(user) Virtual web folder, pages uploaded here can be seen via http://domain.com/users/$(user)

What the above setting does is create a /web folder in the users space which is actually the c:\inetpub\wwwroot\users\$(user) directory, $(user) being the users name, and supply the description "Virtual web folder, pages uploaded here can be seen via http://domain.com/users/$(user)" on the mounts page so the user knows what it is for.

What does the folders page do?

I have saved explaining this page till last because it is the most complex and involves things from all the other pages. On the folders page you have a pulldown list of "sites" these sites include the web server described as "username@host", any and all servers setup on the add ftp page shown as"username@server", and any visits setup on the visit page shown as "user's shared_folder". Selecting from this list will cause the page to be reloaded displaying the files and folders on the site selected.

For the web server site you have a lot of options, you can: upload a file, download a file, browse the directories, create a new folder, move files / folders, copy files / folders, transfer files / folders, delete files / folders, rename a file / folder, share folders, lock files / folders, and unlock files / folders. Most of these options are pretty self explanatory but a few have some rules you need to know:

• When "transferring" files / folders: You can only transfer from the web server to and ftp server or back, not from one ftp server to another, that is why when you select files / folders and click "transfer" if you were browsing the web server machine you will see a list of ftp servers and vice versa.
• When "copying" or "moving" files / folders: You can only copy or move on the same site, so if the files are on the web server machine you can only copy or move them around the web server machine not to an ftp server or a shared folder and vice versa.
• You can only "share" a folder.
• If you "lock" a folder, you will belocking that folder and all of it's contents including sub-folders and thier contents etc.
• If you are visiting a shared folder then you have a limited number of options due to the share settings:
  If the folder is not shared for readonly you will be able to do everything except share folders.
  If the folder is shared for readonly you will only be able to lock, unlock, transfer and download files.
  If the folder is not allowing anonymous access then you will not be allowed to visit anonymously.
  If the folder is allowing anonymous access (and you are anonymous) and shared for readonly you will only be able to download files.
  If the folder is allowing anonymous access (and you are anonymous) and not shared for readonly you can create folders and upload files.
• If you have someone's shared folder setup as a visit but they stop sharing it your visit will not update automatically but you will get an error trying to visit and can either remove the now incorrect visit reccord, or ask them to share it again..
• When you lock a file or folder, then no-one can access that file or folder until you unlock it. Only you can unlock it. If someone locks a file or folder while visiting a shared folder then they are the only person who can unlock it and no-one can access it until they do.
• If you click "rename" it will pick one of the files / folders you have selected as you can only rename one thing at once, and will then ask for a new name.