• Welcome
• yourhomework File Manager Interface
  • Folders Pane
  • Files Pane
  • Toolbar
    • Upload
    • Refresh
    • Settings
    • Help
  • Status Bar
  • Context Menu
• Compatibility and System Requirements

Welcome to yourhomework File Manager

yourhomework File Manager makes it easy to maintain your images and other files for your yourhomework Teacher's Web Page. To open the File Manager, click the Manage your Files icon on the Site Builder tab of your Personal Page. (If the icon does not appear, see here.)

Whether you are new to yourhomework File Manager or an experienced user, it is well worth spending time browsing through this documentation, to achieve complete knowledge about this simple but powerful software.

yourhomework File Manager Interface Overview

The yourhomework File Manager interface has been designed to be clear, familiar to our users, and easy to learn and use. Most features can be handled with a mouse click and context menus.

The following is a screenshot of the yourhomework File Manager:

1. Folders Pane: contains the "tree view" of the folders where you can navigate. Folders are ways to organize files better.
2. Files Pane: lists the files available in the selected folder.
3. Toolbar: a series of buttons that can be clicked to quickly execute specific functions.
4. Status Bar: space used to display information regarding the select file, the total number of files in the folder, etc.
5. Context Menu: a series of buttons that can be used to execute specific tasks in the object that has been clicked. The available options dynamically change, depending on which kind of object is clicked.

Folders Pane

The Folders Pane contains the "tree view" of the folders where you can navigate. Folders are ways to organize files better.

It is called a "tree view" because you have the folders hierarchy represented like tree branches. It uses the same graphic representation found in many modern operating systems.

Basic Operations

Opening a Folder

To open a folder, revealing its "children" folders, simply click in the plus sign () in front of it. If the plus sign is not present, the folder doesn't have children folders to be displayed.

See "Under Request Loading" below in this page to better understand how folders are load.

Closing a Folder

To close a folder, hiding its children folders, simply click in the minus sign () in front of it.

Selecting a Folder

To select a folder, making it the "current folder" in yourhomework File Manager, simply click in the folder name, or in its icon. The selected folder will have a different background color.

Advanced Operations

Advanced operations may be achieved on a folder by using its "Context Menu". The following options are available:

Note: Some context menu buttons may be disabled, depending on yourhomework File Manager settings enforced by your system administrator.

To create a child folder inside an existing folder, just click the "New Subfolder" option in the context menu. A dialog box will appear, asking for the new folder name. Just type it and confirm.

Not all characters can be used in folder and files names due to limitations in the systems where yourhomework File Manager runs. For instance, the following characters cannot be used on folders and files names: \ / : * ? " < > |

To rename a folder, just click the "Rename" option in the context menu. A dialog box, containing the current folder name, will appear, asking for the new folder name. Just type it and confirm.

Not all characters can be used in folder and files names due to limitations in the systems where yourhomework File Manager runs. For instance, the following characters cannot be used on folders and files names: \ / : * ? " < > |

Attention: by renaming a folder, links or media insertions available in other pages, which point to files or folders inside the renamed folder, will be "broken", therefore not available anymore. So, be careful when using this feature.

To delete a folder, including its contents, just click the "Delete" option in the context menu. A confirmation message will appear to ensure that this operation is desired.

Attention: by deleting a folder, links or media insertions available in other pages, which point to files or folders inside the deleted folder, will be "broken", therefore not available anymore. So, be careful when using this feature.

The most important difference between yourhomework File Manager and the folders tree found in operating systems, is that, in yourhomework File Manager, the folders are loaded "under request". It means that it doesn't load the entire folders tree at startup, but loads a small subset of them when "opening" the folder. This is a requirement on advanced web applications like yourhomework File Manager.

To indicate that folders are being loaded, the "Loading..." label may appear when opening a folder:

The label will automatically disappear once the folders load is completed. Once loaded, the label should not appear anymore for that folder.

Files Pane

The Files Pane lists all files available in the selected folder.

Different Views

The Files Pane may present two different views, depending on yourhomework File Manager settings (see "Settings"). The following is a comparison of the "Thumbnails" and the "List" views for the same folder:

Basic Operations  

Selecting (Activating) a File

To select a file, making it the "active file" in yourhomework File Manager, simply click in the file. To make it easy to understand that the mouse is over the file, the file area will be colored. The selected file will have a different background color (generally blue).

Advanced Operations

Advanced operations may be achieved on a file by using its "Context Menu". The following options are available:

Note: Some context menu buttons may be disabled, depending on yourhomework File Manager settings enforced by your system administrator.

To select a file, returning it to the hosting application, just click the "Select" option.

Viewing (previewing) Files

To preview a file in the browser, just click the "View" button. Not all kinds of files can be viewed on browsers, but this feature is quite useful for images, text and PDF files. In other cases, the browser will ask you to open the file with the proper application.

To rename a file, just click the "Rename" option in the context menu. A dialog box, containing the current file name, will appear, asking for the new name. Just type it and confirm.

Not all characters can be used in folder and files names due to limitations in the systems where yourhomework File Manager runs. For instance, the following characters cannot be used on folders and files names: \ / : * ? " < > |

Attention: by renaming a file, links or media insertions available in other pages, which point to the renamed file, will be "broken", therefore not available anymore. So, be careful when using this feature.

To delete a file, just click the "Delete" option in the context menu. A confirmation message will appear to ensure that this operation is desired.

Attention: by deleting a file, links or media insertions available in other pages, which point to the deleted file, will be "broken", therefore not available anymore. So, be careful when using this feature.

Toolbar

The Toolbar is a dedicated area at the top of the yourhomework File Manager interface. It contains a series of buttons that can be clicked to quickly execute specific functions.  Here is a screenshot of it:

Toolbar Buttons

The following is the list of buttons available in the standard toolbar:

• Upload: Opens the "Upload Pane", which can be used to add new files to the current folder.
• Refresh: Reloads the list of files in the Files Pane.
• Settings: Opens the "Settings Pane", were you can configure and personalize yourhomework File Manager.
• Help: Opens this User's Guide.

Upload Button

The upload* button, in the toolbar, opens the "Upload Pane", which can be used to add new files to the current folder. Here is a screenshot of it:

To close the Upload Pane, just click in the "Cancel" button, or click "Upload" again in the toolbar.

* "Upload" is a technical term. It means the action of transferring a file from your local computer to a central computer (also known as server).

Upload Steps

1. Select the file from your computer by using the "Browse..." button. The text in the button may vary from browsers, but it will always be right after the "Select the file to upload" field.
2. Click the "Upload Selected File" button. A message will appear, indicating that the upload is in progress.
3. Wait for the upload to terminate. Once completed, the Upload Pane will close automatically, and the uploaded file will be selected in the Files Pane.

Upload Messages

The following are messages that may appear when uploading files:

A file with the same name is already available. The uploaded file has been renamed to "filename(1).ext"

Indicates that the uploaded file name is already in use by another file in the same folder. To avoid conflict, a progressive number, the "(1)", has been appended to the original name.

Invalid file

The uploaded file has not been accepted.

The most common cause for this messages is that yourhomework File Manager has been configured to not accept the kind of file you are trying to upload, based on its extension. This is a security restriction. Another cause of it may be that the file size is too big for your system. In this case the server must be configured to accept bigger files. The current maximum file size is 2 megabytes.

Upload cancelled for security reasons. The file contains HTML like data.

The uploaded file contains HTML code. For security reasons, only files with selected extensions are allowed to contain HTML code.

Please contact your system administrator to have more information regarding the accepted file types and their size limits.

Refresh Button

While working in a shared space like yourhomework File Manager, where dozens or even hundreds of users are working in the same files, it may happen that changes are done by others in the same folder you are working on, at the right moment that you have it opened. To reload the files list, just click the "Refresh" button.

For example, suppose you have to create a page for a brand new product of your company. You open yourhomework File Manager to get the product picture to include in the company web site, but, when opening the "Products" folder, you can't find that picture. You take the phone and call "Beth", saying: "Hey Beth, the product picture is not at yourhomework File Manager!". Beth says, "Ops... just a minute". She opens yourhomework File Manager in her computer, uploads the picture file from her desktop and tells you: "It's there now, just refresh it". You click on Refresh and, voila! The file appears there for you. This is why yourhomework File Manager is also known as Collaborative Software.

Settings Button

The "Settings" button, in the toolbar, opens the "Settings Pane", were you can configure and customize yourhomework File Manager. Here is a screenshot of it:

All settings are automatically saved by using browser "cookies". Cookies are small files containing private configuration information for specific web sites.

To close the Settings Pane, just click in the "Close" button, or click "Settings" again in the toolbar.

Configuration Options

All configuration options are related to the Files Pane. They are used to control how to display information in that pane. The Files Pane will react immediately to changes in the Settings Pane.

View

Controls the view mode in the Files Pane:

• The "Thumbnails" mode will display each file as a "box". For images, a small preview of it (called thumbnail) will be displayed inside the box. For other files, an icon will be available instead.

• The "List" mode will display all files as a list, one bellow the other. No image previews are available in this mode.

Display

Sets the amount of information available in the Files Pane. To exemplify, here is the thumbnail box when you have no options selected for Display, until having all options selected:

Sorting

Controls the order in which the files will be listed. If can be alphabetically by file name, by date of creation of the file with newer files first, or even by file size.

Help Button

Opens the "User's Guide" in a new window.

Status Bar

The "Status Bar" is a small space used to display information regarding the select file, the total number of files in the folder, etc. It can be found at the very button of the yourhomework File Manager interface.

If a file is selected in yourhomework File Manager, the Status Bar will display detailed information about that file, containing the file name, its size and the data of its last modification. For example:

If no files are selected instead, the total number of files in the current folder is displayed. For example:

Context Menu

The "Context Menu" is a series of buttons (called "menu") that can be used to execute specific tasks in the object that has been clicked. The available options dynamically change, depending on which kind of object is clicked.

Available Menus

Folder Context Menu

It appears when clicking in a folder in the Folders Pane with the mouse right button:

File Context Menu

It appears when clicking in a file in the Files Pane with the mouse right button:

Empty Space Context Menu

It appears when clicking in the Files Pane, but outside a file (in the background) with the mouse right button:

Compatibility and System Requirements

yourhomework File Manager is a "web application", running inside your web browser.

Currently, the following browsers are required to allow yourhomework File Manager to run:

• Internet Explorer 5.5+
• Firefox 1.5+
• Opera 9.5+
• Safari 3+

Some features are dependent of your browser settings. By default, it should be ready for yourhomework File Manager, but if you are experiencing problems with the Context Menu or your Settings are not being saved, be sure that your browser is configured to "allow scripts to replace context menus" ("allow scripts to receive right clicks") and that you have "cookies support enabled".

Please contact us if you have questions on browser settings.