Resources

• Introduction
• Locating the Resources share
• Resources share structure
• Populating the Resources share
• Upload from hard disk
• Using the Resource Manager to manage resources from within a web browser
• Setting permissions

Introduction

All resources, i.e. images in GIF or JPG format and files created by standard applications such as Word and Excel are stored via the use of a virtual share, called the Resources share, which looks and behaves much like a conventional network share.

As this share is a feature of Firefly.NET it has the additional bonus that links from Firefly.NET pages to any files stored on the share are preserved and not broken when a file is moved to a different folder. This is because, just as with Firefly.NET pages, files in the Resources share are referred to by a unique index number, e.g. resource.aspx?id=6249, and not by their position within a folder structure. It doesn't matter where in the share the file is as Firefly.NET looks for the index number and not its position.

In addition, Firefly.NET will text index all Word, Excel and pdf files so that these may be searched using the Search facility - a very powerful addition to Firefly.NET's feature set.

NB Resources may be edited inline (by those with appropriate permission) and saved back to the database.

Locating the Resources share

You can connect to the Resources share by right clicking My Computer, choosing Map Network Drive and mapping http://www.mysitedomain/Resources (nb case sensitivity). The exact URL will of course vary from site to site and you will need to consult your Firefly.NET administrator for the correct address.  Please note your administrator may have already done this for you - you may already have a drive letter mapped to the Resources share automatically when you log in.

Resources share structure

This is probably best described using an example: that shown below gives a screenshot of the Firefly.NET menu structure for a top level section called "Manual" which has two sub-sections called "Draft user guide" and "Physics". There are also two other top level sections called "St Mary's" and "Test area", along with the default "Tools" section.

The screenshot on the right shows how each top level section and each sub-section is automatically mapped with a corresponding folder on the Resources share. You will note that each section is also assigned (again automatically - you cannot edit the names) a section number. Thus, when the "Physics" section was created, Firefly.NET automatically assigned the section number 41 to it.

Populating the Resources share

Again using the example above, if a whole set of folders exists on various network shares belonging to, say, the Physics Department, and if it is wished to make all the files available to users via Firefly.NET's content management facility, then the folders should be dragged and dropped into the top level Physics section ("Section 41 - Physics" in the example above).

Images can be imported in exactly the same way. Note that image files added in this way will not have keywords or descriptions "attached" to them nor may they have meaningful names, especially if their origin is a digital camera ("DCM001.jpg" is a pretty impenetrable filename!). However, all such details can be modified by choosing the Resources Manager from the Tools menu and editing image file properties there.

Whilst Firefly.NET doesn't mind where or how files and/or folders are organised within the section, it is very good practice to set up a logical folder structure such as that shown above. In addition, image files could be saved anywhere but are best kept in folders reserved for the purpose.

 Upload from hard disk

An alternative way of adding files to the Resources share, and one which is useful if there is no direct access to the share, is via the Upload from hard disk option available from the Upload Resource facility. This may be accessed either from the Insert Image dialog box (for uploading image files) or from the Insert link box after the Resource-> Browse options are chosen.

• Then click the upload icon  to bring up the Choose a Resource to link to dialog box

• Browse to the destination folder by clicking the  button and then navigating via the "Explorer" structure which appears. In the example, the destination folder is called "Mixed files"
• Browse to the file to be added to the Resources share (this is a file called "experiment_data.xls" on the desktop in the example above)
• Complete the Description and Keywords fields (important for graphics but probably omitted for other files as the Firefly.NET text index makes this far less important)
• Click Upload

Using the Resource Manager

The Resource Manager is a web based interface allowing you to manage the resources share (as an alternative to using the network share).  You can access the resource manager by choosing "Resource Manager" from the Tools - Site menu.

It may also be accessed from within Choose a picture to insert by clicking the icon shown below:

Once loaded, the Resource Manager window opens, as below:

The navigation menu allows you to navigate to a different resource folder.

Setting Permissions

Read and write access to folders and their contents or even to individual files may be set (by those with authority to do so) in a way similar to that of Firefly.NET pages by means of the Resource Manager, which is accessed via the Tools menu (see above).

In the Resource Manager, navigate to the folder/file whose permissions are to be set by clicking on the Location: button  to show folders in the Resources share in an "Explorer" type view. Then browse to and select the required folder. The example below shows how to open a sub-section section folder called "Geography" which is in a top-level section called "Departments".

When "Geography" is clicked, its lower level section folder structure is displayed and changes may be made by clicking the modify button  alongside (or the delete button , if the resource is to be deleted):

The example above shows a simple folder structure for a sub section called "Geography". Clicking the modify button  next to "Year 1" brings up the Modify Resource Folder dialog box in which read and write permissions are set:

Here permissions are set so that read only access to the contents of the "Year 1" folder is given to the same group(s) who can read or write to the "Geography" section.

These permissions are inherited by all files and folders within the "Year 1" folder unless they are separately modified.