Support Area: File Manager

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What can File Manager do?

File Manager is perhaps the most powerful tool in your Control Center. With it you can:


    Be advised that many of the features of File Manager can have adverse affects on your web site operation if used improperly. Be sure to read the materials carefully, and use File Manager to alter or delete your files with care.

View the complete file structure of your account

Here is an overview of your File Manager screen. It shows the current permissions (security) settings for each file and directory, the owner of the file or directory, the file size and date, and file or directory name. To the right there are some tools for each entry including delete, rename and password (covered below).

Under the file and directory listing is a sort tool that allows you to change the view from alphabetical to by date or size, etc.

Clicking on a directory name will change the display to show the contents of that directory.

Folders are indicated by yellow icons to the left of their name.

When in any folder below the root folder of your account, you will see the "Parent Dir" link which will take you up one level in the directory structure. The line below this shows where you are currently browsing.

A REALLY USEFUL TIP

There are 2 directories listed in your root folder (see above) that are not really directories. What are they? Aliases - think of them as shortcuts. The folders named 'www' and 'domain-secure' are not really holding additional copies of your files, or taking up extra room in your disk allocation. They are shorthand for getting to the 'domain-www' folder. Imagine, for example, if your domain name was 'johnjacobjingleheimerschmidt.com'. You would definitely appreciate being able to put in simply 'www' as the path for HTML files when publishing or using your CGI scripts...

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Change permissions on any file or directory

Shown at the left in your directory listing, the permissions control who can or cannot read, write, or execute your files. The first set of 3 letters is for the domain owner, the second set for the domain's group, and the third is for everyone else (translated - your visitors). For more information on Linux file permissions, we encourage you to look at the many Linux tutorial materials available online and in bookstores.

To change the file permissions, click the permissions block at the left of the file listing and the following screen will appear (this applies to both files and directories)

Here we are viewing the permissions for the 'cgi-bin' folder. To execute a CHMOD command (see below) and alter the permissions, just check the appropriate boxes and hit 'submit'. The change is instantaneous.

ANOTHER REALLY USEFUL TIP

The Linux command used to change file or directory permissions is called CHMOD. Our web interface executes this command for you, so you do not have to study up on the intricacies of file permissions. Sometimes, however, permissions settings can be referred to numerically versus with letters. For example, permissions of 'rwx r-x r-x' translate to a numeric code of 755. Sometimes a 3rd-party application may instruct you to set permissions according to the numerical code. If you need to know the letter equivalent, click here for more information on permissions and a handy conversion table.

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Delete, rename, and even upload files via the web

In the File Manager screen, there are buttons next to each file and folder where you can perform some maintenance.

DELETE
To delete a file or folder, click the 'delete' button, which will bring up a screen asking you to confirm the action.

W A R N I N G !

IF YOU DELETE A DIRECTORY, ALL FILES AND SUB-FOLDERS WITHIN WILL BE REMOVED!
Please be absolutely certain you no longer need any of the contents before removing a directory.

RENAME
To rename a file or folder, simply click the 'rename' link and enter the new name for the file or folder.

UPLOAD A FILE
A quick way to send a few files to the server is to use the tool near the bottom of the screen in File Manager:

You can either enter in the file name (using the path on your local computer, like C:\myfile.htm), or use the handy "Browse" button which will open a dialog box where you can navigate to the right file (it looks just like an "open file" box you might see in any Windows program). Then click the "Upload" button and the file zooms up to your directory on the server. Make sure you are in the right screen in File Manager - for example, HTML documents should go in the 'domain-www' folder, so be sure that's where you are when you click 'Upload".

IT'S ANOTHER REALLY USEFUL TIP!
The maximum file size you can upload (in Kbytes) is determined by the amount of free disk space currently available in your account.

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Create new directories and files

It's as simple as it looks. Enter the name of a new file to create an empty (blank) file on the server which you can edit (see below), or a new folder can be created the same way. As always, make sure you're in the right place when you use these tools since the new files/folders will go to whatever folder you are looking at in File Manager.

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Edit HTML, CGI and Perl files right in your browser

You may have noticed that some files listed in File Manager are hyperlinked (clickable):

Clicking the link brings up a basic text editor where you can make direct changes to files without having to upload anything from your computer:

When you click "Save file" your changes are live immediately. Use caution since there is no "Undo" command here!

The 'Change Size" button is for the window size of the editor, if you want to enlarge or reduce it for easier reading and typing. The width is in characters and the height is in lines.

The Edit feature works for most text-based files including:

  • HTML documents (.htm, .html, .shtml, .phtml)
  • Plain text files (.txt)
  • CGI and Perl scripts (.cgi, .pl).

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Password-protect Directories

The "Password" link (directories only) will open the Protect Directories tool where you can set usernames and passwords.

YET ANOTHER REALLY USEFUL TIP

You cannot use the Protect Directories tool if you have FrontPage extensions installed. You must follow the procedures for enabling server folder security within the FrontPage program and documentation.

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